The Rainbow Crate team is pleased to reveal that our February 2025 theme is…

📷  CHAPTER BY CHAPTER 📚

🌈 Whether the new year brings new pursuits or second chances, we’ve got your literary needs covered at Rainbow Crate! Both of our books are adult romances this month, and they take place in and around our favorite places – libraries!

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📷 BOOK 1 for February is a deeply romantic story that brings childhood best friends back together after a hometown hardship, Of Love & Libraries by Brenna Bailey! We fell head over heels for this golden years second-chance romance. This wholesome story might just make you weep!

📷 OUR RAINBOW CRATE EXCLUSIVE FEATURES: ⁠
- Signed edition!
- New dust jacket with iridescent foiling & spot gloss!
- New Illustrated hardcase with gloss accents!
- Art endpapers
- Printed edges
- Bonus Content: new short story celebrating birthdays and bookcubs!

📷 BOOK AT-A-GLANCE:
GENRE: Small Town Romance
REP: wlw, lesbian main characters, bisexual side character, lesbian side characters, nonbinary side character, trans male side character
SPICE: ★☆☆☆☆
LENGTH: 247 pgs

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📚 BOOK 2 for February is our longtime asexual favorite, Upside Down by N.R. Walker! This novel is a heartfelt and funny story featuring two ace main characters. Jordan and Hennessey get to know one another through short bus trips and fast trivia-like questions while you fall head over heels for them!

📚 OUR RAINBOW CRATE EXCLUSIVE FEATURES:
- Signed edition!
- New dust jacket with dark grey & grape foils and spot gloss!
- New illustrated hardcase with pale gold & purple foils!
- Art endpapers
- Printed edges

📚 BOOK AT-A-GLANCE:
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
REP: mlm, white gay ace questioning male MC with anxiety, white gay asexual male MC, white lesbian female side character, white bisexual male side character involved in a poly triad, side characters part of an aromantic and asexual support group.
SPICE: ☆☆☆☆☆
LENGTH: 248 pgs

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🌈 Limited subs are open now for the January box! Start a subscription for yourself or a loved one at the link below to make 2025 a year full of queer (books)!

A new year, a new you – and we have got two huge fan favorites for you! 

The Rainbow Crate team is pleased to reveal that our January 2025 theme is…

✒️ CREATIVE PURSUITS! 🪼

Read on to learn more!

🌈 Whether the new year brings new pursuits or second chances, we’ve got your literary needs covered here at Rainbow Crate! Both of our books are adult books this month, romances taking place in different creative fields!

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✒️ BOOK 1 for January is a one we have been raving about, a swoon-worthy rivals-to-lovers romance taking place in the world of comics, Outdrawn by Deanna Grey! From the moment we turned the first page, we were hooked! Get ready to follow Noah and Sage, two longtime rival comic creators who just happen to hate each other, but are forced to work together on a new project. There is so much depth and so many emotions in this book, we know you’re going to fall head over heels for it like we did!

✒️ OUR RAINBOW CRATE EXCLUSIVE FEATURES:  ⁠

- Signed edition!

- A beautiful new dust jacket with pink glitter and iridescent foiling

- The gorgeous original cover on the hard case with pearlescent accents

- Gorgeous art endpapers

- Printed edges

- Bonus Content: A new short story picking up after the book ends!

✒️ BOOK AT-A-GLANCE: 

GENRE: Adult rivals-to-lovers romance

REP: Black bisexual mc, Black lesbian mc with carpal tunnel syndrome, Gay scs

SPICE: ★★☆☆☆

CW: Brief discussions of biphobia and lesbophobia, Parent struggling with alcoholism, Parent struggling with disability due to car accident, Parentification, Brief mention of suicidal ideation, Sexually explicit scenes, Discussion of a motorcycle accident, Description of wounds

LENGTH: 321 pgs

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🪼 BOOK 2 for January is the deeply romantic yet heart-wrenching You & I, Rewritten by Chip Pons! Will and Graham’s journey into love is going to make you cry, cry, CRY! Their love story unfolds surrounded by the world of publishing, and before you know it, you’re going to be swept up in their fluffy romance, personal lives, and the big twist at the end! 

🪼 OUR RAINBOW CRATE EXCLUSIVE FEATURES:  ⁠

- Signed edition!

- A beautiful new dust jacket with iridescent silver foiling and embossing

- The gorgeous original cover on the hard case with iridescent foiling 

- Gorgeous art endpapers

- Printed edges

- Bonus Content: A new short story picking up two years after the end of the novel

🪼 BOOK AT-A-GLANCE:

GENRE: Adult contemporary romance

REP: mlm, gay mc, gay Spanish li, Spanish sc, Asian-American sc

SPICE: ★☆☆☆☆

CW: alcoholism, death of a parent, panic attacks, parental abandonment, grief, PTSD, physical abuse, military sexual trauma

LENGTH: 297 pgs

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🌈 Limited subs starting with the Dec 24 box are open now! Start a subscription for yourself or a loved one ▽here▽ to make 2025 a year full of queer (books)!

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

❄️ WINTER WONDERLAND ❄️

Read on to learn more! 🧵

❄️ Our Dec trad is something a little bit different — get excited for A Queer & Cozy Winter by… Rainbow Crate! That's right, this original anthology will never be published anywhere else! We’ve been working on this book for the better part of a year and had such a hard time keeping this secret!

❄️ OUR RAINBOW CRATE EXCLUSIVE FEATURES:  ⁠

- A gorgeous dust jacket with blue, red, and silver foiling

- Illustrated hard case with gold foil

- Gorgeous custom art endpapers

- Printed edges

- 11 never-before-released original short stories!

❄️ BOOK AT-A-GLANCE: 

GENRE: A little of everything!

REP: A huge variety of queer rep! Each story has individual rep and CWs listed at the start of the tale

AUTHORS: 

  Ben Alderson & Laura R. Samotin

  Claudie Arseneault

  Anna Burke

  Kellen Graves

  Ian Haramaki

  Noah Hawthorne

  Natalia Hernandez

  Naseem Jamnia

  Tamara Jerée

  SD Simper

  Rosie Talbot

LENGTH: 349 pgs

❄️ SUMMARY: Every author was hand-selected by the Rainbow Crate team from a smattering of beloved authors from our past boxes and every story is a uniquely queer tale about winter, featuring writers from a diverse array of backgrounds. We can’t wait to share these with everyone! The stories in this anthology span the gamut!

⛄️ Our indie book for December is the wonderfully sweet Snow Boys by Simon Doyle! If you liked Heartstopper, this book may turn out to be your new favorite!

⛄️ OUR RAINBOW CRATE EXCLUSIVE FEATURES:  ⁠

- A gorgeous exclusive new dust jacket with iridescent foil glitter and gloss

- Illustrated hard case with gold foil and iridescent gloss

- Gorgeous custom art endpapers

- Printed edges

- Signed bookplates

- Bonus Content: Snow Girl, a Snow Boys short story!

⛄️ BOOK AT-A-GLANCE:

GENRE: YA Christmas Romance

REP: mlm, cis gay male main characters, ace/aroflux secondary character, gender-neutral / non-labelled secondary character

CW: homophobia (including homophobic slurs and some violence), anxiety, social anxiety, internalized homophobia, alcohol use and alcohol abuse / alcoholism, underage drinking, financial troubles, suggested domestic abuse and spousal abuse, depression, self-harm

LENGTH: 348 pgs

⛄️ SUMMARY:  Dean O’Donnell is a wallflower with a secret and a voice that could steal the show. Preferring to blend into the background at his high school, his world tilts on its axis when he is chosen for a major solo in the upcoming Christmas choir performance. His quiet life is further disturbed when he receives a Secret Santa gift, and an unexpected friendship forms.

Ben Hunter is the boy next door, well-liked but lonely. He wrestles with unspoken feelings for Dean and a family crisis that’s tearing him apart. When he takes a job at the local cinema to help his family out of a desperate situation, his academic life begins to crumble under the strain. But that’s the least of his worries.

As the holiday season unfolds, so do their feelings for each other. But with Dean’s anxiety escalating, and Ben’s life turning more chaotic, their differences seem more apparent than ever. Can they navigate their personal challenges and embrace the feelings growing between them? Or will this winter be the season of missed chances and what-ifs?

⛄️ Limited subs starting with the November box are open now on our website! Next year is all special editions, all the time, so don’t wait to get started! A 6-month or one year subscription would make a great holiday gift (hint, hint)! Also, beginning in January, we will have our first illustrated shipping box! So many exciting changes!

❄️ Get started here:

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

✨ RISK TAKERS ✨

Our Trad book for November is A Diamond Bright & Broken by Holly Davis, a queer young adult fantasy that follows a girl who cries diamonds and would do anything to protect her sister.

💎 BOOK AT-A-GLANCE: 

GENRE: YA Fantasy

REP: biracial lesbian fmc, biracial bisexual love interest, biracial female sc with muscular dystrophy (uses a wheelchair and crutches), various BIPOC and queer scs.

CW: social inequity, classism, ableism, gaslighting, physical abuse (referenced but not shown), on-page depiction of emotional and verbal abuse (parent to child), confinement, death, murder, homophobia, stealing and imprisonment, fantasy violence, blood, injury.

LENGTH: 256 pgs

💎 OUR RAINBOW CRATE EXCLUSIVE EDITION WILL FEATURE:  ⁠

- Gorgeous new dust jacket 

- Author letter

- Signed art bookplates

💎 SUMMARY: Sixteen-year-old Cadence was born with the ability to cry tears of diamonds–a secret talent her parents have abused to climb the royal ranks thanks to the infinite source of wealth. At their command, she cries diamonds to pay for the pricey treatments for her sister’s neuromuscular disorder. Regardless of the pain, she’ll do anything for her sister, who weakens by the day.

When the prince heckles Cadence at the King's Summer Solstice Ball about her sister’s disability while dancing in the ballroom, she's left on the verge of tears, threatening to expose her power. She is saved by a mysteriously charming girl who sweeps in to take the next dance—and the single diamond Cadence cried. The stranger reveals the Magi Queen sent her to tell Cadence that she's a mage, and that her power is a curse.

Yearning to discover the secrets behind her powers, Cadence sets off for the City of Magi. To claim the life she wants, Cadence must embrace her power—before she loses the bright spots in her otherwise sad existence. After all, even diamonds can shatter.

💫 Our indie book for November is A Circle of Stars by Craig Montgomery, a queer young adult fantasy filled with political intrigue and romance set inside a hidden lunar city, where astrology is magic and your birth sign defines your social status.

💫 BOOK AT-A-GLANCE:

GENRE: YA Science Fantasy

REP: white cis gay MC w/ C-PTSD, Greek cis gay MC, Greek queer cis MC, African and Greek queer trans-masc sc, Greek lesbian sc, African lesbian sc.

CW: Graphic : Violence, blood, death, dead body, animal death (not pets), homophobia, outing, domestic abuse, sexual assault (off the page). Moderate: Suicide, drug use, drug addiction, panic attack/disorder, cursing, sexual content, religious trauma. Minor: Vomit, injury details

LENGTH: 451 pgs

💫 OUR RAINBOW CRATE EXCLUSIVE EDITION FEATURES:  ⁠

- New fully-redesigned dust jacket

- Foiled hard case featuring the original cover art

- Gorgeous custom art endpapers

- Author letter

- Signed bookplates

- Bonus scene!

💫 SUMMARY: All Casper Bell has ever wanted is to belong. But now, abandoned by his friends and family after being outed, he has nothing left to lose when the people of Novilem abduct him.

Except Earth.

Teleported to a world where stars grant humans magic, Casper discovers he has the rare ability to draw power from all twelve astrological signs — a gift that makes him a political pawn for the Estellar Council. But Novilem’s inhabitants seem as hard and cold as the stone their city is carved from, and Casper’s new role leaves him more isolated than ever. Until he meets the grandson of the council’s most powerful woman. Helix is kind, playful, and heartbreakingly handsome, yet it’s how Helix makes him feel that gives Casper hope.

As rebellion brinks in the city, even the Council starts to fracture, reaching for extreme measures that could cost Casper not only his newfound abilities, but the first place he has ever wanted to call home. Together with Helix, he must uncover the secrets of his full potential —  because the survival of Novilem hinges on Casper’s powers, whether he’s using them or not.

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.

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?

✨ 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.

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.

🏴‍☠️ 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.

💋 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?

💀 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.