With the world considerably more tuned in to queer romance than it was just a couple of months ago, thanks to the smash success of the Canadian adaptation of Rachel Reid’s Heated Rivalry, I’d like to thank publishing for keeping us well-fed with a glorious flood this month. While I could only feature five here, make sure you also check out the new Alexandria Bellefleur f/f, Playing for Keeps; Pumped, the trans m/m newest installment in K.M. Neuhold’s Gymbos series; and Taleen Voskuni’s new bi m/f Our Ex’s Wedding.
Two Left Feet
Author: Kallie Emblidge
Released: January 13, 2026 by Dell
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, RomanceA Premier League football star must defend his roster spot—and his heart—when a threateningly talented and handsome midfielder joins his team in this utterly charming debut romance, a profound love letter to the world’s most popular sport.
Oliver Harris is football royalty in London. Ordinarily the star of the Camden Roses is calm, cool, and collected, keeping his club relevant with his prowess in the midfield and his mighty left foot. But this season, the threats There’s Camden’s management to contend with—complete with a prickly new Dutch coach, eager for better results—and a midseason injury, which sidelines him when his team needs him most. When a recruit is called up to fill in, Oliver fears he’ll be replaced. If he can mentor this younger talent, then they might just have a chance at winning, together.
After a string of lackluster performances in his native Spain, Leonardo Davies-Villanueva is looking for one last shot with the club he always dreamed of, where he once played in the youth academy. Oliver immediately finds confident, eager Leo irritating. He can barely go through the motions, let alone coach him, without outright hostility. When he comes to admire Leo’s skill and warms to his humor and energy, though, he begins to see Leo as a friend—and then, to his mounting horror, as something more.
Leo craves Oliver’s attention and partnership; Oliver can’t afford to fall in love with his teammate. He’s always kept a tight lid on his sexuality in a league that’s never had a player come out. As the season heats up, a lot more than football hangs in the balance. Can Oliver—and Leo—win when it counts most?
“An exuberant heart-squeeze of a book . . . Two Left Feet is the kind of joyful, hopeful story the romance genre was made for.”—Rachel Lynn Solomon, author of What Happens in Amsterdam
For those of you who’ve been lusting after more m/m sports romance, debut Kallie Emblidge is here to help with your yearning by providing so much delicious yearning of its own. Set in the world of football (the non-American kind), it’s got everything from sexy accents to competitive natures and passion to spare. The perfect pick for that post-HR slump.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!For Our Next Song
Author: Jessica James
Released: January 13, 2026 by Berkley
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance
Series: Glitter Bats #2The decade-long friendship between two rock goddesses is thrust into the spotlight after their mutual desire strikes a perfect—and very public—chord.
For Glitter Bats keys player Jane Mercer, writing music helps tune out her self-doubt from a strict upbringing. Composing also distracts from her longtime feelings for her bandmate and best friend, Keeley, who Jane can’t pursue if she wants to keep her bisexuality out of the media. But when an incompetent percussionist quits mid–recording session on one of her major solo projects, there’s only one drummer to call to make the deadline.
Keeley Cunningham is determined to do what’s best for the newly-reunited Glitter Bats—including conceal her incurable attraction to Jane by keeping her distance. Still, when Jane asks for her help in the studio, Keeley drops everything to fill in. They collaborate harmoniously… until their repressed feelings crescendo into a massive argument about the band’s future that leaves them barely speaking.
As music forces Jane and Keeley into increasingly close proximity, the lingering tension finally ignites into the romance they’ve both been craving—and it’s hot, emotional, and fundamentally secret. But after an intimate moment is caught on camera, they’ll have to decide if their duet can survive its debut—both on and off stage.
I absolutely adored Jessica James’s last Glitter Bats book, a bi m/f rock star romance, so I’m thrilled to see her returning to that world with an f/f between bandmates that promises to smolder at least as hard. Between forced proximity and the secretive nature of their romance, Jane and Keeley’s attraction has all the ingredients necessary for extreme hotness, while bringing us back to a whole cast of characters we’ve already come to know and love.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Last First Kiss
Author: Julian Winters
Released: January 27, 2026 by St. Martin's Griffin
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, RomanceSparks fly in this second chance m/m rom com when an unlucky-in-love event manager realizes the man-of-honor at the high profile wedding he’s planning is the same man who broke his heart.
They say you never forget your first kiss. But Jordan Carter wishes he could forget the one he shared with Jamie Peters as teens. And the one they almost shared again last year before Jamie made it clear he wasn’t the “right” man for Jordan to be with while he’s figuring himself out.Now, Jordan’s fully focused on his career at 24 Carter Gold, his family’s event planning company, and ready to move on – until his boss assigns him to plan a new client’s high-profile wedding. The bride’s man-of-honor? None other than Jamie.
As things ramp up the closer they get to the wedding, so does Jordan’s relationship with Jamie, with sarcastic asides turning into steamy hook-ups. But can Jordan afford to pursue Jamie if he’s still unsure who he is? Or is knowing who he loves enough? Venue shopping, cake-tastings, and dress fittings with the man he can’t forget just might change the man Jordan Carter is meant to become.
Last First Kiss by Julian Winters is a second chance romance about finding yourself–and the love of your life.
Look, I am thrilled that Julian Winters is still writing YA, but I am an entire other level of ecstatic that he’s bringing us another adult romance, because now that we’ve finished 2025 I can tell you that his I Think They Love You was my favorite m/m of the entire year. If you read it, you knew these were going to be the next characters to get their own book, because the chemistry between them was completely unignorable, and the added bonus of Jordan being demisexual so that when he wants Jamie, you know he is so all in is just *chef’s kiss*. There’s patience and comfort checks and the balance of sweet and heat is just, well, trademark Julian Winters, really.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Hold Your Horses
Author: Ali Mulford
Released: January 27, 2026 by Rogue Fables Pty Ltd
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance
Series: Prickle Island Zoo #5When socially anxious, secretly asexual, and thoroughly horse-illiterate Hollis lands a job at Prickle Island Zoo (by pretending to be a cowgirl from Wyoming), she’s just hoping for a fresh start . . . and maybe to hide away from the world with a Jane Austen novel and meerkat in tow.
What Hollis doesn’t expect is to fall head over heels—literally—for the charming non-binary zookeeper, Heron.
Heron Lachlan knows that living at their family zoo on a tiny island and being ace means the dating pool is zero. Heron accepts that their longest running relationship will probably be with a literal goose . . . until Hollis trots in wearing a thrifted cowboy hat and lying through her teeth.
As zoo hijinks, escaped ostriches, and a meddlesome family of zookeepers bring them closer, Hollis and Heron must face their fears, their secret hopes, and their wildly incompatible knowledge of equine fun facts.
A light-hearted, queer rom-com about finding your person, embracing your truths, and rewriting the rules of love—Hold Your Horses is the joyful, asexual slow-burn you didn’t know you needed.
Each book in the Prickle Island Zoo series can be read as a standalone. Feel free to jump into this series wherever you like!
Mulford’s been busy, between their Golden Court fantasy series, coauthored Maple Hollow paranormals, and this, the Prickle Island Zoo series, of which Hold Your Horses is the fifth book. The series features both cishet and queer romances (including the Sapphic Party Animal), but this one’s got the rarest pairing, with two ace MCs, one of whom is nonbinary. It promises horse puns (which is an elite class of puns), a slow burn, and general zoo hijinks, and sounds like an utterly delightful way to bring in the new year.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!See You at the Summit
Author: Jordyn Taylor
Released: January 27, 2026 by Gallery Books
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, RomanceFor fans of Alison Cochrun and Abby Jimenez, a heartfelt and sexy romantic comedy following one bi woman’s messy journey through coming out—and reluctantly falling for a straight man. From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Wicked Darlings .
Girl comes out as bi. Girl falls for a straight guy.
Simone Whittaker has spent the first three decades of her life pretending to be straight. But when the girl she never dared call her girlfriend walks away, she decides she’s done living in fear. Her uptight parents don’t take the news well, but a viral coming-out post and a new job at Toronto’s Rainbow Museum offer a fresh start—and a crash course in queer adulthood.
That is, until her first day of work, when Simone ruins a project designed by Ryan Foley—the museum’s gruff and annoyingly hot carpenter—earning her the top spot on his enemies list. When they’re forced to take a work trip to the Whistler Pride and Ski Festival together, Simone vows not to let a grumpy straight guy ruin her first Pride. But Ryan keeps surprising her—thoughtful, vulnerable, and impossible to ignore. As sparks fly on chairlifts and by crackling fires, one snowstorm—and one bed—changes everything.
Back in Toronto, however, reality sets in. Dating a guy—and being mistaken for straight—weren’t exactly part of Simone’s coming-out plan. As the pressure builds between the identity she’s just beginning to explore and the relationship that wasn’t supposed to happen, she starts to What if claiming one part of herself means erasing the other?
Taylor’s best known for her Sapphic Jewish historical YA, including last year’s The Rebel Girls of Rome, but her debut adult romance is thoroughly modern, and will definitely be relatable to lots of bi readers. All the angst and stress and bravery of coming out, only to have people think you never needed to in the first place? But Meet You at the Summit emphatically conveys how identity doesn’t hinge on a single relationship or attraction, and neither does wanting to be an active and inspirational member of the queer community, and yeah, it’s got some solid steam, too.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!
