This Decadent Queer Romance is the Perfect Summer Read

Theo and Kit were childhood best friends who fell in love and were inseparable into their twenties…until a fight on the way to their dream vacation changed everything. Now, it’s four years later, and the voucher for this food and wine-tasting tour across Europe is about to expire, so Theo books the trip solo at the last possible moment — only to find that Kit had the same idea. Stuck on the same trip for weeks, they hesitantly begin to rebuild their friendship. Along the way, they make a bet about who can sleep with someone first in each of the cities they visit.

This may be my new favorite romance novel. I loved it. The descriptions of food and drink, plus the beautiful locales, make this feel so decadent. It’s also steamy and sweet at the same time, with a heavy dose of yearning. It’s the perfect summer read. You can hear my full thoughts on All the Books today or read my review at the Lesbrary.

Casey McQuiston has an interview with Rolling Stone about this book that I think is worth quoting here: “What was really exciting to me was creating a Trojan horse of trans romance, where the packaging and premise are very pretty and beach-read vibe, and then you get into it and you’re like ‘I think I understand this character’s gender now’ in a way that’s both earning the character [development] and bamboozling straight people into reading.” Cheers to bamboozling straight people!

K-pop fans, this romance series is for you! This is book three in the Idol Romance series. In book one, we meet movie star Jason Park, whose attitude on set has put his career in jeopardy, and K-pop star Woo Tae Hyun, whose group dissolving has left him starting over as a solo artist. When their label puts the two together on a project to try to get them more attention, they initially butt heads, but they can’t deny their growing chemistry. By book three, this power couple comes into an inheritance that brings with it new enemies and rivals.

This is the second book in a trilogy that started with The Dawnhounds. It’s a queer, Maori-inspired, pirate, biopunk fantasy with intense world-building — in fact, when I read book one in 2022, I had trouble following it. Despite that, I really enjoyed it, and I’m excited to read book two. I’ll just have to reread The Dawnhounds to have any hope of understanding it. Book two brings our crew to a new city, now in flames, where they face off against a militia as the gods’ war threatens to annihilate their world.

Marlowe was supposed to be having a relaxed summer. When the girl she’s been crushing on agrees to go out with her, things are looking up…until Marlowe accidentally starts a fire during their first date and burns down the house she was supposed to be housesitting. Whoops. Her new summer job is now hosting tours of Morning House, a hundred-year-old mansion, which initially is pretty boring. Then, she unearths a mystery of Morning House that she’ll have to solve before it causes any more deaths.

This is a YA vampire duology set in Jazz Age Harlem. Elise Saint’s family hunts reapers, who are humans turned vampires. Now 18, she’s the reluctant heir to this powerful empire. Layla Quinn was turned into a reaper five years ago, and she’ll never forget Elise Saint’s subsequent betrayal. The friends turned enemies are forced to work together when Layla is framed for a brutal murder and rumors spread of a cure for reapers. Can reapers really turn human again? Or is this all a distraction for something hunting humans and reapers alike?

Tara lives in her imagination most of the time. It’s more fun there. But then she’s sent from seventh grade into high school, and she’s completely overwhelmed: by her classmates’ interest in racy TV shows, by the raucous teen boys taking over English class, and by a whole host of new expectations. When she meets Libby, though, Tara starts to develop confusing new feelings. This is a YA graphic novel about the awkwardness of growing up, and it comes highly recommended by Alice Oseman, creator of Heartstopper!