The year is coming to an end, but publishers have saved some good ones for last! Whether you’ve been naughty or nice, treat yourself to a book or two this holiday season and enjoy!
There’s Always Next Year
Author: Leah Johnson
Released: December 2, 2025 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance, Young AdultFrom New York Times-bestselling author George M. Johnson and USA Today-bestselling author Leah Johnson comes a revolutionary new holiday romcom for fans of Lynn Painter, Alice Oseman, and Nicola Yoon.
Andy was supposed to shed her too-serious student journalist persona and reinvent herself on New Year’s Eve. Instead, she puked on her crush, dropped her phone in a fish tank, and managed to get her car stolen. Now, she only has the first day of the year to stop the gentrification that’s threatening her family’s business right her wrongs from the night before, and figure out why she feels so drawn to the electric new-girl-next-door. . How can Andy find her voice when everything’s being turned upside down?Dominique is an influencer on the verge of securing a major brand deal that will ensure his future and family legacy. But when he runs into his former best friend, unresolved feelings emerge — and in a small town, there’s nowhere to hide. Not from his cousin, Andy, who has always seen him for his true self, not from his busybody manager, Kim, whose favorite color is money green, and certainly not from himself. When all the world’s a stage, can Dominique rise to superstardom without leaving the ones he loves behind?
There’s Always Next Year is a dual POV, double love story about what it means to nearly blow your life up, and race to put it back together before your time runs out. And if they fail? Well, there’s always next year.
This YA novel gives two beloved authors for the price of one, combining the brains behind All Boys Aren’t Blue and You Should See Me in a Crown for a pair of romance storylines wrapped in family and community and perfect for the holidays.
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Author: Zakiya Jamal
Released: December 2, 2025 by Berkley
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, RomanceA late bloomer thought a visit to a sex club might jump start her love life, but instead makes an instant connection that turns her whole world upside down, in this adult debut from author Zakiya N. Jamal.
When Stella Renee Johnson’s roommate invites her to a sex club party but bails at the last minute, Stella decides to use the opportunity to finally cash in her V-card. But just when things are heating up between Stella and a sexy stranger, they realize they don’t have protection and Stella, taking it as a sign this wasn’t meant to be, flees.
Frustrated in more ways than one, Stella is shocked to learn that the digital media website where she works is partnering with an AI company. She’s even more shocked when the alluring man from the previous night walks in. Max Williams is the CEO’s brother and the creator of the AI program now threatening her job.
Despite the conflict of interest, Stella and Max can’t resist their magnetic attraction toward each other, and agree to keep their personal lives separate from what’s happening at work. But the more similarities they discover at home—both Black, book smart, and bisexual—the more they butt heads at work. Stella and Max must decide whether to think with their heads and walk away from their budding relationship, or follow their hearts and take a chance on love, no matter the cost.
It’s one thing to launch a queer debut, but it’s an entirely other incredible thing to launch queer debuts in two different categories in one year, and Jamal has nailed it. Just eight months after releasing her sweet Sapphic Romance, If We Were a Movie, Jamal has gone decidedly adult with this sexy bi4bi m/f that also tackles working in a creative industry going all in on AI.
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Author: Alexis Hall
Released: December 9, 2025 by Sourcebooks Casablanca
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance
Series: Winner Bakes All #3A charming new LGBTQIA+ romcom from the bestselling author of BOYFRIEND MATERIAL.
Audrey Lane is perfectly fine. Really. So what if she left her high-powered job as a Very Important Journalist—and her even higher-powered long-term girlfriend—to live a quiet life as a reporter for the second-biggest newspaper in Shropshire? And so what if she keeps hearing that same higher-powered long-term now-ex-girlfriend in her head night and day, constantly judging just how small Audrey’s allowed her life to become?
She’s fine. She’s happy. She’s perfectly within her groove. Do not-in-their-groove people get weekday drunk and impulsively apply for the UK’s most beloved baking show?
All right, so maybe she’s not completely fine, but being on Bake Expectations is opening her world again in ways she never anticipated. First through fellow contestant Doris, whose personal story of queer love during WW2 captures Audrey’s heart, imagination and journalistic interest like nothing has in ages. Then through Jennifer Hallet, the most foul-tempered (and fouler-mouthed) producer, woman, and menace Audrey has ever met. Jennifer should be off-limits, but her fire lights something unexpected inside of Audrey, making her want to burn back a million times brighter. A million times hotter. A million times more herself than she’s been in a long, long time.
It’s been three years since the last installment of the Winner Bakes All series, Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble, and after m/f and m/m pairings, we’re finishing up with an f/f that takes us back to Bake Expectations with a forbidden romance.
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Author: Georgia Beers
Released: December 16, 2025 by Bold Strokes Books
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, RomanceOpposites attract, and Riley Shaw stands no chance of resisting Hannah Kramer’s magnetic pull. But opposites know just how to drive each other crazy…
How it starts: Her best friend Kyle suggests Riley take a job at Poptacular, his grandmother’s gourmet popcorn shop. Spending the summer mixing caramel and cheddar sounds like fun, right?
Spoiler alert: It’s not fun.
Enter Kyle’s little sister Hannah and her stubborn refusal to try any ideas that aren’t her own. Their working styles are completely different. In short, she is infuriating. And hot. Why does she have to be hot?
How it’s going: Years have passed, and Riley’s no longer a victim of her teenage hormones. She’s a high-powered consultant who travels from city to city, helping struggling businesses. Distance weakens a magnetic field, and Riley doesn’t think about Hannah Kramer. Not ever.
So, when Kyle calls to say Poptacular is in trouble and on the brink of closing its doors, her first thought definitely isn’t of Hannah. No, heading back to her hometown is not on her bingo card. But for Poptacular’s co-owner, popcorn is Hannah’s whole life, and Riley can’t stand to see her dream fail.
How it ends: With the Great (hot and buttery) Popcorn Romance, of course.
I don’t know how Georgia Beers does it, but this is her third (?) Sapphic romance of the year, and each one sounds cuter than the last. Best Friend’s Brother is such a huge trope in hetero romance, but few things hit like the much rarer lesbian Best Friend’s Sister. Plus, a popcorn shop! How adorable is that??
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Author: Tara Pammi
Released: December 16, 2025
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance
Series: Bollywood Dance & Drama Society #2PINKY
I blew up my life like it was a lab experiment gone wrong.
Broke off my engagement. Dropped out of med school. Moved back home.
Now I’m planning my twin’s wedding while being smothered by five overprotective older brothers—and the only thing keeping me sane?
The other maid of honor—Sarangi Rao—beautiful, sexy, intimidatingly accomplished. A total ice-queen. Or so I think until I get to know her a little.When we agree to fake-date through the wedding madness to get everyone off our backs, it feels like I can finally breathe again. Between choreographing first dances and coordinating floral crises,
we become partners—in planning, in dancing & in bed.Soon, my fake feelings turn very real and this time, it won’t just be my future I lose—but my heart.
SARANGI
Fake-dating Priyanka Thomas is the last thing I need.
She’s chaos in a crop top—messy, magnetic, and entirely too tempting. But saying yes buys me freedom from the pressure cooker of family expectations. And it’s just for a few months, right?
But then, she moves into my house, gets under my skin. And makes me believe in love all over again.
What if Pinky only wants me for a fake, fun fling… while I’m falling in love for real?
A prolific author of hetero Harlequin romances, we don’t often get to see the Sapphic side of Pammi’s work, so I was thrilled to see her return to the Bollywood Dance & Drama Society series for the first time since 2021’s When Tara Met Farah. And this one sounds deliciously tropetastic… Fake dating! Opposites attract! Forced proximity! Wedding themes! Ice queen! Ah, what a delight.
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For the past two Decembers, Garrett Leigh has published a standalone (yet still connected tangentially to many of her other books) Christmas romance, and she continues the tradition with CHRISTMAS ON COSMIC AVENUE (December 3). This one involves an injured firefighter and his single-father neighbor.
I really enjoyed Emmy Sanders’s BRIM OVER BOOT, so I’m eagerly awaiting the next book in the Darling Brothers series, SADDLE TO SUNUP (December 18), about a divorced man (a supporting character in BRIM) experiencing bi-awakening.
In between publishing her Shadowy Solutions series, Nicky James has been occasionally publishing other books, such as KISMET (December 22) in which a forensic pathologist and a police detective grow closer as they work together to investigate a series of deaths. James really knows romantic-suspense, and I expect KISMET to be a good blend of the two.
Amithia Raine’s SHOULD OUR HEARTS CATCH FIRE (December 26) is the third book in her Who We Are series of contemporary (with a dash of paranormal thrown in) m/m romances. The premise of this book reminds me somewhat of Tal Bauer’s recent THE FALL in that a man wakes up in the future and discovers that he is in a serious relationship with a man. Unlike THE FALL, where one MC barely knew the other MC before he awakens in the future, the MCs of SHOULD OUR HEARTS CATCH FIRE knew—and hated each other—in the past. Raine is a new-to-me writer, but I enjoyed her angsty SHOULD THE SKY FALL which I read recently.
All on my TBR!
JMS Books is doing its annual Advent Calendar with a new story releasing daily to Dec 24, FREE on day of release. All are LGBTQ+ focused and romance centered. Among these is MM novelette EMBER CAST by Alexandra Caluen (that’s me) launching on the 13th. 🙂
Karma Kitty Christmas by Amy Lane just came out last month – I always love her stuff, and love that I can count on a holiday novella every year 🙂
Also book 10 in the Beyond the Veil series by KM Avery is coming out 12/19 – this is my favorite series right now, with frequent re-reads, and has imbedded trilogies – books 1-3 are Ward and Mason’s story, then you branch to Hart and Taavi for books 4-6, then Seth and Elliot for 7-9, and 10 is going to start the next trilogy. Love this series, and you can jump in if needed – I accidentally started with book 4 and was sucked in with how much I loved the grumpy elf MC in that one. Major slow burn, lots of world building, lots of crime solving… love these books!
All on my TBR