The Rainbow Crate team is pleased to reveal that our October 2024 theme is…

✨ Transformations ✨

🐉 Our Trad book for October is Legend of the White Snake by Sher Lee, a beautifully romantic genderbent mlm retelling of one of the great four Chinese folk tales about a snake spirit named Bai Suzhen and the human man he falls in love with.

🐉 BOOK AT-A-GLANCE: 

GENRE: YA Fantasy Retelling

REP: mlm, Chinese fantasy cast

CW: animal cruelty, animal death, death, violence, blood, sexual harassment

LENGTH: 352 pgs

🐉 OUR RAINBOW CRATE EXCLUSIVE EDITION WILL FEATURE:  ⁠

- Gorgeous new dust jacket with gold foiling

- Author letter

- Signed bookplates

🐉 SUMMARY: A snake spirit transforms into a boy and must hide his true identity after falling for a headstrong prince in this lush, romantic retelling of the traditional Chinese folktale. 

When Prince Xian was a boy, a white snake bit his mother and condemned her to a slow, painful death. 

The only known cure is an elusive spirit pearl—or an antidote created from the rare white snake itself. 

Desperate and determined, Xian travels to the city of Changle, where an oracle predicted he would find and capture a white snake. Seven years ago, Zhen, a white snake in the West Lake, consumed a coveted spirit pearl, which gave him special powers—including the ability to change into human form. 

In Changle, Xian encounters an enigmatic but beautiful stable boy named Zhen. 

The two are immediately drawn to each other, but Zhen soon realizes that he is the white snake Xian is hunting. 

As their feelings grow deeper, will the truth about Zhen’s identity tear them apart? 

🧜‍♀️ Our indie book for October is Providence Girls by Morgan Dante, a cool and mysterious tale of falling in love with someone who isn’t what they seem to be.

🧜‍♀️ BOOK AT-A-GLANCE:

GENRE: Real World Fantasy

REP: wlw

CW: wlw, lesbian main character with albinism and PTSD, bisexual love interest with PTSD

CW bound in: Past sexual abuse between a father and daughter, Past rape, Past traumatic pregnancy, Body horror, Emetophobia, Body dysmorphia, Ableism toward people with albinism, Mentions of suicide ideation

LENGTH: 357 pgs

🧜‍♀️ OUR RAINBOW CRATE EXCLUSIVE EDITION FEATURES:  ⁠

- New fully-redesigned dust jacket

- Foiled hard case featuring the original cover art

- Foiled endpapers

- Author letter

- Signed bookplates

- Bonus short story

🧜‍♀️ SUMMARY:

 In a romance, love changes you. In a cosmic horror story, so do the Outer Gods.

Now: Alone in a cottage, Lavinia writes to the woman she loved.

Fifteen years ago: MIddle-aged Lavinia Whateley escapes her hilly Massachusetts town when the townsfolk decide to sacrifice her on Halloween. After almost dying in the woods, she's saved and housed by the stoic and mysterious Asenath Waite, or Azzie. On the coastal outskirts of East Providence, they start to fall in love.

However, things change when Azzie, with her secret past and the strange "scars" on the side of her neck, begins to transform into an eldritch creature of the deep.

Limited subs beginning with the September box are open now!

The Rainbow Crate team is pleased to reveal that our September 2024 theme is…

🏡 Family Ties 🏥!

🏡 Our Trad book for September is When the World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson, an intricate, luminous tale of a family’s complicated past and present. Filled with road trips, rivalries, family curses, love stories within love stories within love stories, and sorrows and joys passed from generation to generation. Only by telling their stories can they hope to rewrite their futures.

🏡 BOOK AT-A-GLANCE: 
GENRE: YA Contemporary

REP: mlm, gay mc, bisexual Mexican-American li, Spanish and Spanish-American scs.

CW: Sexual assault, abandonment, physical/emotional/child abuse, mental illness, infidelity,  drug abuse, grief, car accident, medical content, gaslighting, addiction, alcoholism, suicide.

LENGTH: 528 pgs

🏡 OUR RAINBOW CRATE EXCLUSIVE EDITION WILL FEATURE:  ⁠

- New fully-redesigned dust jacket

- Author letter

- Signed bookplates

🏡SUMMARY: The Fall siblings live in hot Northern California wine country, where the sun pours out of the sky, and the devil winds blow so hard they whip the sense right out of your head.

Years ago, the Fall kids’ father mysteriously disappeared, cracking the family into pieces. Now Dizzy Fall, age twelve, bakes cakes, sees spirits, and wishes she were a heroine of a romance novel. Miles Fall, seventeen, brainiac, athlete, and dog-whisperer, is a raving beauty, but also lost, and desperate to meet the kind of guy he dreams of. And Wynton Fall, nineteen, who raises the temperature of a room just by entering it, is a virtuoso violinist set on a crash course for fame . . . or self-destruction.

Then an enigmatic rainbow-haired girl shows up, tipping the Falls’ world over. She might be an angel. Or a saint. Or an ordinary girl. Somehow, she is vital to each of them. But before anyone can figure out who she is, catastrophe strikes, leaving the Falls more broken than ever. And more desperate to be whole.

🏥 Our indie book for September is Who’d Have Thought by G. Benson, a sweet and engrossing sapphic fake dating romance between a top neurosurgeon and a nurse… and including a grumpy cat!. The deal is only for a year of fake marriage… what could possibly go wrong?

🏥 BOOK AT-A-GLANCE:

GENRE: Adult Romance

REP: wlw, Honduran-American pansexual female MC, lesbian li, Japanese-American nonbinary sc, queer scs.

CW: Extremely homophobic parents & language, Alzheimer's,  misgendering, mentions of losing patients, death of a small child, mentions of infidelity, mentions of parent leaving, hospitals, sexual content.

LENGTH: 435 pgs

🏥 OUR RAINBOW CRATE EXCLUSIVE EDITION WILL FEATURE:  ⁠

- Exclusive hardcover edition

- New fully-redesigned dust jacket

- Foiled hard case

- Art endpapers

- Printed edges

- Collectible bookmark

🏥 SUMMARY: Top neurosurgeon Samantha Thomson needs to get married fast and is tightlipped as to why. And with over $200,000 on offer to tie the knot, no questions asked, cash-strapped ER nurse Hayden Pérez isn’t about to demand answers.

The deal is only for a year of marriage, but Hayden’s going into it knowing it will be a nightmare. Sam is complicated, rude, kind of cold, and someone Hayden barely tolerates at work, let alone wants to marry. The hardest part is that Hayden has to convince everyone around them that they’re madly in love and that racing down the aisle together is all they’ve ever wanted. What could possibly go wrong?

🏥 Limited subs beginning with the August box are open now!🏡

✨ Our Trad book for August is Practical Rules for Cursed Witches by Kayla Cottingham, a sapphic fantasy adventure about a teen witch who must complete her magical training by breaking a powerful family’s curse. But her own affliction—to never find true love—gets in the way when she falls for the girl she’s trying to save.

✨ BOOK AT-A-GLANCE: 

GENRE: YA Cozy Fantasy

REP: wlw, white bisexual female mc. white sapphic female mc, nonbinary sc, achillean scs

CW: child abuse (minor)

LENGTH: 432 pgs

✨ OUR RAINBOW CRATE EXCLUSIVE EDITION WILL FEATURE:  ⁠

- New fully-redesigned dust jacket

- Author letter

- Signed bookplates

✨SUMMARY: Magic is in Delilah Bea’s blood. Her absentee father is the world’s most famous cursebreaker, while all the women in her family are fated to never find true love. So when Delilah graduates her magical training and must complete her Calling, she has the perfect task in mind—to break the Bea family curse.

But Delilah’s Calling is hijacked by Kieran Pelumbra, a member of the wealthiest and most powerful family in the country, and breaking his curse suddenly becomes her official assignment. Every generation, a pair of Pelumbra twins are doomed, with one twin draining the other of their life and magic. Each day, Kieran grows weaker while Briar gets closer to…something monstrous.

As Delilah and the twins set out on their quest, they quickly realize that breaking the Pelumbra curse isn’t going to be simple. For one, the Pelumbra family doesn’t actually want their curse broken—and they’ve sent hunters after them to ensure they fail. Secondly…it’s Briar. There’s just something about her that gets under Delilah’s skin and makes her want to kiss the perpetually grumpy look off her face. But with time running out for the twins and Delilah’s own curse getting in the way, they may not stand a chance of finding their Happily Ever After.

🐉 Our indie book for August is Dragon Falls by Davis Lavender, a warm and fuzzy gay fantasy romance between a chaotic ray of sunshine and a gruff dragon tamer carrying a few scars.

🐉 BOOK AT-A-GLANCE:

GENRE: Cozy Portal Fantasy

REP: mlm, achillean demi male mc, gay male mc, queer scs

CW: mentions of cheating, manipulation, minor injuries

LENGTH: 357 pgs

🐉 OUR RAINBOW CRATE EXCLUSIVE EDITION WILL FEATURE:  ⁠

- New fully-redesigned dust jacket

- Foiled hard case

- Art endpapers

- Author letter

- Signed bookplates

- Bonus short story

- Collectible bookmark

🐉 SUMMARY: An ordinary guy crashes into a cozy fantasy. Chaos ensues.

How did I end up married to a dragon tamer? I guess you could say I fell into it — down a bottomless ravine and into a strange world of fierce dragon-riding warriors. They think I’m their leader’s missing son, and if they find out I’m Feliks, a nobody from modern Kraków, I’m in trouble.

Unfortunately, this missing guy had a husband, and now he’s mine. Marek is a grumpy, monosyllabic dragon wrangler who’s instantly suspicious of me and my quirky charm. He doesn’t like being in the same room as me, let alone the same bed. So if I want to get out of here, I’ll have to learn to ride a dragon without falling off, and somehow convince Marek I’m his long-lost love. Because of course, I want to get out of here… at least, I think I do.

Featuring a slow burn that ends in a bonfire, it also includes enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, a truth-telling wing woman, an indifferent adolescent and a spicy scene or two. And dragons. Don’t forget the dragons.This is a complete story with a happily-ever-after.

🎬 Limited subs beginning with the July box are open now through the link below!

Did you know that this is Rainbow Crate’s FIFTIETH box? We’ve grown a lot over the years, and we’re marking this milestone with two FABULOUS books that are very different, but take place in the same arena, which is…

🎬 HOLLYWOOD! 🎬

🎬 Our Trad book this month is Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle, a twisted, modern-day hollywood horror starring a jaded scriptwriter who is asked to do the unthinkable, and the B-movie monsters from his past that will make sure he does exactly what they want…

BYG-AT-A-GLANCE: 

GENRE: Horror

REP: gay, ace, bi lesbian

LENGTH: 304 pgs

SPECIAL FEATURES: 

- New fully-redesigned dust jacket!

- Author letter!

- Signed bookplates!

SUMMARY: From Chuck Tingle comes a new heart-pounding story about what it takes to succeed in a world that wants you dead.

Misha is a jaded scriptwriter who has been working in Hollywood for years, and has just been nominated for his first Oscar. But when he's pressured by his producers to kill off a gay character in the upcoming season finale―"for the algorithm"―Misha discovers that it's not that simple.

As he is haunted by his past mistakes, Misha must risk everything to find a way to do what's right―before it's too late.

🎬 Our Indie spotlight is something very different, Stars Collide by Rachel Lacey! In hardcover for the first time, this critically-acclaimed 2023 favorite is the love story of a jaded pop star whose career is beginning to wane after 20 years, and the young, rising vocalist that brings the light back into her life!

SC AT-A-GLANCE:

GENRE: contemporary romance

REP: lesbian, pansexual, trans, sapphic, Black, Filipino-American, and Mexican-American scs

LENGTH: 327 pgs

SPECIAL FEATURES: 

- New fully-redesigned dust jacket

- Foiled hard case

- Art endpapers

- Printed Edges

- Author letter

- Signed bookplates

- Deleted scenes

- Collectible bookmark

SUMMARY: Eden Sands has been a star for twenty years, but it’s lonely at the top. Her mediocre marriage just ended, and her inner circle is smaller than ever. The stage is the only place she’s ever felt like she truly belonged, and yet, her last album flopped, and her upcoming tour hasn’t sold out. Eden’s desperate for her star to shine bright again, but when her team suggests a collaboration with an up-and-coming young star to give her a boost, she balks.

Anna Moss is pop music’s rising star. She’s idolized Eden Sands for most of her life—so it’s a dream come true when she’s invited to perform with her at the Grammys. Anna’s tired of being defined by her bubbly persona. She wants to be taken seriously as an artist, and a duet with Eden could be just what she needs.

As Anna and Eden rehearse, they soon realize they have more in common than their musical talents. Now they just have to decide if what is between them is a one-hit wonder or the making of a romance worthy of one of the greatest love songs of all time.

🎬 Limited subs beginning with the June box are open now!

🏴‍☠️ Our Trad book for Pride month (and our four-year anniversary) is The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye by Briony Cameron, a swashbuckling tale based loosely on a true story of a fish out of water shipwright who finds her true home on the high seas as the first female pirate captain!

BALLAD AT-A-GLANCE:
GENRE: Adult high seas adventure
REP: Black bisexual mc, Peruvian sapphic love interest, gay scs
LENGTH: 368 pgs

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- New fully-redesigned dust jacket
- Author letter
- Signed bookplates
- Collectible bookmark

SUMMARY: In the tumultuous town of Yáquimo, Santo Domingo, Jacquotte Delahaye is an unknown but up-and-coming shipwright. When her way of life and the delicate balance of power in the town are threatened, she is forced to flee her home along with a motley crew of refugees, including a mysterious young woman named Teresa. Jacquotte and her band become indentured servants to the infamous Blackhand, a ruthless pirate captain who rules his ship with an iron fist.

🛸 Our Indie spotlight is Trailer Park Prince by Andre L Bradley, an out of this world tale of aliens forced to live amongst humans, and what integration into human society means to them, particularly the twin princes set to be their peoples' future leaders.

TPP AT-A-GLANCE:
GENRE: YA modern day sci-fi
REP: Two mixed-ray gay male MCs, two gay male MCs, gay scs, bisexual scs.
LENGTH: 300 pgs

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- New fully-redesigned dust jacket
- Art + foiled hard case
- art endpapers
- Author letter
- Signed bookplates
- Deleted chapter
- Collectible bookmark

SUMMARY: A decade ago, a rift tore open the Kaydan sky, pulling twin princes, Noan and Jormon, plus thousands of their people, from their home world and dumping them in the American South. In the years since, they've grown used to the drones policing their every move and to hiding the magic-like abilities that set them apart. But they'll never get used to the crosses burning outside their trailer-an occasional reminder that Kaydans don't belong.

🛸 Limited subscription spaces are open now!

💋 Our Trad book is Flawless Girls by beloved author Anna-Marie McLemore, a story of a left-behind sister desperate searching for answers in a boarding school that is definitely what it seems.

FG AT-A-GLANCE: 

GENRE: YA dark academia urban fantasy fever dream (skews older)

REP: sapphic intersex Latina mc, sapphic gender-nonconforming li, various white sapphic scs

LENGTH: 304 pgs

SPECIAL FEATURES: 

- New fully-redesigned dust jacket

- Author letter

- Signed bookplates

- Collectible bookmark

SUMMARY:  The Soler sisters are infamous in polite society—brazen, rebellious, and raised by their fashionable grandmother who couldn’t care less about which fork goes where. But their grandmother also knows the standards that two Latina young ladies will be held to, so she secures them two coveted places at the Alarie House, a prominent finishing school that turns out first ladies, princesses, and socialites.

Younger sister Isla is back home within a day. She refuses to become one of the eerily sweet Alarie girls in their prim white dresses. Older sister Renata stays. When she returns months later, she’s unfailingly pleasant, unnervingly polite, and, Isla discovers, possibly murderous. And the same night she returns home, she vanishes.

As their grandmother uses every connection she has to find Renata, Isla re-enrolls, intent on finding out what happened to her sister. But the Alarie House is as exacting as it is opulent. It won’t give up its secrets easily, and neither will a mysterious, conniving girl who’s either controlling the house, or carrying out its deadly orders.

💋 Our Indie spotlight is Earthflown by Frances Wren,  a twisting, magical thriller that sets up US (the 99%) against THEM (the rich).

EF AT-A-GLANCE:

GENRE: Adult futuristic whirlwind with a side of drama

REP: (from the author) “We'd like the emphasis to be that both Litarnes and I are queer creators of colour, and many aspects of the rep is lived experience.”

Gay male mc w/depression and lower melanin, Ace-spectrum male mc w/lower melanin, Maori male mc w/high melanin, South-east Asian male sc w/moderate melanin, Bisexual & sapphic, scs (including South-east Asian) w/moderate + lower melanin

LENGTH: 467 pgs

SPECIAL FEATURES: 

- New fully-redesigned dust jacket

- Art + foiled hard case

- art endpapers

- Author letter

- Signed bookplates

- Extra content

- Full-color art gallery in back

- Collectible bookmark

SUMMARY: When Ethan saves the life of a firestarter, it's nothing unusual. He's the only healer on call at the hospital – and that gunshot wound isn't going to regenerate itself. But his patient turns out to be Corinna Arden, heiress to a pharmaceutical empire controlling Britain's water supply. Her twin, Javier, is a man who (a) starts sending Ethan flowers at work, (b) seems terrified of a secret, and (c) has the cheekbones and earnestness to make up for both.

Ethan indulges in (what he thinks will be) a brief, harmless romance – but is swept up in a deadly collusion over Project Earthflown: the largest reconstruction tender since London clawed its way out of the rising sea.

Determined to follow the money, Ollie is a journalist who finds a corpse at the end of a too-convenient tip. The fate of water – and who profits – might depend on the perennial question: has Ethan lost his mind, or is he just an idiot?

💋 Limited subs beginning with the April box are open now!

💀 I WANT ZOMBODY TO LOVE 💀

April’s two books are proof that love doesn’t have to end with death. 

💀 Our Trad book is Hearts Still Beating by debut author Brooke Archer, a gripping, romantic love story set in a zombie-filled post-apocalyptic landscape.

HSB AT-A-GLANCE: 
GENRE: YA post-apocalyptic romance (skews older)

REP: white CIS sapphic main characters, one with a fantasy chronic illness, wlw

LENGTH: 336 pgs

SPECIAL FEATURES: 

- New fully-redesigned dust jacket

- Author letter

- Signed bookplates

- Collectible bookmark

SUMMARY: Mara is dead—mostly. Infected with a virus that brought the dead back to life, she wakes up in a facility to learn that a treatment for her ‘condition’ has been found. No longer a danger, Mara is placed in an experimental resettlement program. But her recovery is complicated as she’s sent to live with the best friend she hasn’t seen since the world ended — and since their first and only kiss.

💀 Our Indie spotlight book is Monsters within Men by T.J. Rose, a delicious slow-burn adult love story set in post-pocalyptic London.

MWM AT-A-GLANCE:

GENRE: Adult post-apocalyptic romance

REP: Brazilian/Dutch cis male mc, white cis male bi/questioning mc, Black, Asian, & Middle-Eastern scs, achillean and sapphic scs

LENGTH: 471 pgs

SPECIAL FEATURES: 

- New fully-redesigned dust jacket

- Art + foiled hard case

- Original cover endpapers

- Author letter

- Signed bookplates

- Exclusive extended epilogue

- Collectible bookmark

SUMMARY: A decade on from the first wave of zombies that wiped out most of society, Noah finds himself stepping up to lead Squad E, part of London’s East Regiment. Between battling monsters, struggling with grief, and his rivalry with another lieutenant, Noah is sinking fast. The last thing he needs is a young, weak conscript with an attitude problem to add to his issues. Especially when he can’t seem to get this new guy out of his head.

💀 Limited subs beginning with the March box are open now!

😈 BE GAY, DO CRIME 😈

Rules? Who follows those? Certainly not us…

We’re super excited to bring to you our exclusive March books:

😈 Our New Release book is the wonderfully lyrical Icarus by the author of one of our favorite books, The Wicker King, K. Ancrum! It comes with signed bookplates, new dust jacket, an art bookmark and an author letter!

ICARUS AT-A-GLANCE: achillean cis male mc with eds, white intersex male li

GENRE: YA greek myth retellings (skews older)

REP: achillean cis male mc with eds (+neurodivergent-coded), white intersex male li, mlm, closer-than-friends but not lovers mlmlw

LENGTH: 400 pgs

SUMMARY: Icarus Gallagher is a thief. He steals priceless art and replaces it with his father’s impeccable forgeries. To keep their secret, Icarus adheres to his own strict rules to keep people, and feelings, at bay: Don’t let anyone close. Don’t let anyone touch you. And, above all, don’t get caught. Until one night, he does. Not by Mr. Black, but by his mysterious son, Helios, now living under house arrest in the Black mansion. Instead of turning Icarus in, Helios bargains for something even more dangerous—a friendship that breaks every single one of Icarus’s rules.

😈 Our backlist spotlight is the romantic, perfectly-timed sci-fi epic, Junker Seven by Olive J. Kelley! This fully custom special edition comes with a redesigned dust jacket, end pages, foiled hard case, stenciled edges, and signed art bookplates!

J7 AT-A-GLANCE:

GENRE: Adult Romantic Sci-FI

REP: wlnb, Autistic physically-disabled transmasc non-binary lesbian mc, femme transfem lesbian li, bisexual transfem sc, Deaf gay trans male sc, lesbian scs

LENGTH: 313 pgs

SUMMARY: Castor Quasar is a junker— a bounty hunter making a living off of collecting and selling valuable scrap. They live a quiet life, bouncing from job to job and not worrying about the brewing galactic rebellion. But when they get a job offer for an irresistible amount of money, they find themself smuggling (charming and beautiful) transgender activist Juno Marcus across the galaxy under the watchful eye of the Intergalactic Police Force and a propaganda-informed galaxy.

🗡️ Limited subs beginning with the February box are open now!