Hide Your Wallet
The year is coming to an end, the gift-giving season is upon us, and these Romances are ready and waiting to stuff your stockings!
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The Key
Two high school sweethearts—one cisgender, one transgender, both men— find each other again in adulthood and have a second chance at love, but one of them doesn’t know they’ve been in love before.
Tabby, a closeted trans boy in high school, resolves to come out after moving away for his senior year. He worries his boyfriend, Jax, will reject him over the truth and doesn’t share his trans status. On their final date before Tabby moves, still passing as female, he and Jax agree to break up over the distance and promise to give their love a chance if they find one another again.
As an adult, Jax moves to San Francisco in search of a clean slate. Tabby, living in the same city, fills his life with friends and hosts an LGBT D&D group; however, his boyfriend Rob is a poor match for him. When Jax joins Tabby’s D&D group by chance, the two are thrust together again and become fast friends, yet Jax doesn’t recognize Tabby because of his advanced transition.
Jax becomes Tabby’s unofficial confidant and helps Rob be a better boyfriend behind the scenes to satisfy his growing attraction. With every day that Tabby hides the truth—that he is Jax’s missing first love—he risks losing both Rob and Jax to his lies.
There is something I love so much about about second-chance romance with a trans main character, when the first chance at love was pre-transition and now the characters get to try again with both of them being their true selves. I loved it in Second Chances in New Port Stephen by TJ Alexander, I’m excited about it in Page Powars’ upcoming And They Were Roommates, and I’m psyched to see what Sloan does with it here, especially because despite not playing D&D, I absolutely love when gaming factors into Romance novels too.
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The Rules of Royalty
Two princes from neighboring countries fall into a whirlwind royal romance in this sparkling spin on The Princess Diaries by Cale Dietrich.
Jamie Johnson has never been the centre of attention, and he’s perfectly okay with that. His entire world unravels as a hidden truth emerges: he’s the heir to the throne of Mitanor, a sun-drenched southern European country, and the press is ready to expose this secret to the world. An invitation to spend the summer in his father’s palace arrives, giving Jamie a chance to get to know the man he never thought he’d meet.
Meanwhile, in a northern European kingdom known for its cold climate and stoic royals, Erik Von Rosenborg, the spare prince, grapples with the upcoming marriage of his golden-boy elder brother. With the country’s spotlight trained on his family more than ever, Erik feels sidelined and tightly controlled. So when he receives an offer to tutor the newly found American prince in the ways of royalty, he accepts without hesitation.
At a magnificent summer palace, Erik guides Jamie through the intricacies of royal etiquette, politics, and history. What neither prince anticipates is the connection that sparks between them—one that challenges both of their futures. Now each must make a choice: follow their hearts, or the time-honored royal path where crown and country reigns supreme, no matter the personal cost.
Dietrich’s a delightful genre jumper in YA, with everything from a spy romance to a slasher to this newest, a sweet royal romance billed as a gay YA spin on The Princess Diaries. If you need a dose of feel-good cheer this holiday season, how can you beat that?
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How to Get a Life in Ten Dates
Dating as a plus-size woman has been exhausting for Haleigh Berkshire. Sure, she’s only twenty-five, but she’s been doing it for a decade, and she’s beginning to think it’s time for a sabbatical. It doesn’t help that she’s been madly in love with her best friend, Jack, for years–but one disastrous weekend in college taught her the hard way that they’ll never be more than friends.
With her sister’s engagement party fast approaching, and her friends and family nagging her about a plus-one, Haleigh and Jack do what they do best: scheme. Haleigh agrees to let her friends and family set her up with ten men or women–and she’s sure that, once none of them prove to be good matches, her loved ones will finally let her fade into romantic retirement in peace.
To her surprise, some of Haleigh’s dates go better than expected, and for the first time in forever, she’s actually having fun. Until Jack starts breaking all the rules they’d made to mend their friendship in college. He produces a laundry list of flaws for everyone she likes, crashes some of her nights out, and finally shocks her by throwing himself into the mix. Dating Jack has always been the dream, but Haleigh is afraid of the reality. Is it worth risking her best friend for something that may have never been meant to be?
I always get excited for a good bi m/f rom-com, and with so little fat rep in Romance and queer lit, I’m thrilled to see one done by an author known for careful handling. And who doesn’t love the adorableness of best friends-to-lovers, especially when it turns out the pining’s mutual?
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The Blessed
Suri Daniels, a beautiful and troubled woman, is the descendant of a family of supernaturally gifted women, known as the Blessed, and literally holds keys to gateways between the earthly plane and seven powerful gods. A series of tragic losses and a stipulation in her grandmother’s will has her returning to the family’s home in New Orleans, unaware that she will need to step into the role of Orisha priestess and escape the attention of a powerful demon. To top it all off, she must accept the help of a Cambion—Lyla Jefferies, a dark supernatural being she has spent her life avoiding. What’s worse? She can’t help being drawn to Layla in ways she doesn’t understand.
Being the love child of a top-tier demon and a human isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. For the past two hundred years, Layla Jefferies has lived a life of quietude. When an unknown force draws her out of seclusion, the pull is too strong to ignore. Layla is tasked to assist with protecting the gateways and saving Suri from becoming a vengeful demon’s avatar. Falling in love with her is definitely not part of the plan.
Layla and Suri are brought together by fate to defeat the darkness threatening to tear their world apart. What they don’t expect to discover is a love that might set them free.
Content advisory: Opening chapter includes a depiction of sexual violence and rape.
There are lots of supernatural romances involving shifters or vampires, but how many involve an Orisha priestess? Demons, power, and a New Orleans setting all contribute to this high-stakes fantasy, and the gorgeous cover is the icing on the cake. (Major CW for sexual violence in the opening chapter, which has been included in the copy by the publisher. The MC herself is the product of rape.)
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Something Extraordinary
From the author of Boyfriend Material comes the absurdist adventure of two friends determined to avoid marriage to unsuitable people as they race through Regency England to marry each other instead.
Sir Horley Comewithers isn’t particularly interested in getting married, especially when his match is a perfectly respectable young woman. Sir Horley is, after all, extravagantly gay. But he’s resigned to a fate there’s no point resisting—until a dear friend does it for him.
Arabella Tarleton has no interest in romance, but even she can see that Sir Horley’s nuptials are destined to end in a lifetime of misery. Well, not on her watch. And what are friends for, if not abducting you on your wedding night in an overdramatic attempt to save you from a terrible mistake?
Their journey to Gretna Green is a hodgepodge of colorful run-ins and near misses with questionable innkeepers, amateur highwaymen, overattentive writers, and scorned fiancées. Then again a bumpy road is better than an unhappy destination.
But when it comes to marriage, Belle and Sir Horley are about to discover that it’s not what you do or how you do it but the people who you choose to do it with that matter most.
You can always count on Alexis Hall to liven things up in queer romance, and this newest historical, the third in the Something Fabulous series, looks positively delightful, a so-called “absurdist adventure” involving queer besties (a gay man and aromantic woman) on a quirky lavender marriage escapade toward freedom. Humor, hijinks, and heat (that’s decidedly not between our main “couple”) promises to abound!
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