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The Stars Too Fondly: An interstellar sapphic romcom for fans of Casey McQuiston and Becky Chambers
by Emily HamiltonPart space odyssey, part Sapphic romcom and all spaceship-stealing fun, Emily Hamilton's breathtaking debut is a wild tale of galaxy-spanning friendship, improbable love, and wonder as vast as the universe itself.'I love the way the relationship between Cleo and Billie developed. I fell in love with them, with their relationship. And they made me cry a lot. AND THE LONGING !!!!!!!!' Reader review, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'Absolutely gut-wrenching and gorgeously written. This book sucked me in instantly' Reader review, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐So, here's the thing: Cleo and her friends really, truly didn't mean to steal this spaceship. They just wanted to know why, twenty years ago, the entire Providence crew vanished without a trace. But then the stupid dark matter engine started all on its own, and now these four twenty-somethings are en route to Proxima Centauri, unable to turn around, and being harangued by a snarky hologram that has the face and attitude of the ship's missing captain, Billie.Cleo has dreamt of being an astronaut all her life, and Earth is kind of a lost cause at this point, so this should be one of those blessings in disguise people talk about. But as the ship gets deeper into space, the laws of physics start twisting, old mysteries start crawling back to life, and Cleo's initially combative relationship with Billie turns into something deeper and more desperate than either woman is prepared for.Lying somewhere in the subspace between science fantasy and sapphic rom-com, The Stars Too Fondly is a soaring near-future adventure about dark matter and alternate dimensions, leaving home and finding family, and the galaxy-saving power of letting yourself love and be loved.'I'm a huge fan of that bombastic, earnest, interdimensional aspect that 80's sci-fi had, so seeing it here, just as earnest and openly Queer, was a real treat' Reader review, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'The vibes of this book are seriously so great. It had some of my favorite bookish elements - found family, great banter, forced proximity, and women in STEM' Reader review, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'QUEER ROMANCE. IN SPACE. ROMANTASY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The number of times I silent screamed while reading this cannot even be counted on one hand. This novel is so, so, SO funny and heartfelt' Reader review, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'Space? Check. Sapphic? Check. Rom-com? Check. . . . I loved it from the first page' Reader review, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'I loved this book. It was soft and loving and bright and adventurous and surprised me in a wonderful way' Reader review, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'Wow, this book was such a fun surprise. It was a bit like an episode of Doctor Who. There are big universe ending stakes and yet it's still funny and light-hearted' Reader review, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'I adored literally everything about this. I am a huge Trekkie and also a huge Star Trek Voyager fan and a queer woman, so it did feel like this book might have been made in a lab for me' Reader review, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐'I adored this book. The science, the found family, the relationship between Billie and Cleo- it was absolute perfection' Reader review, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Private Rites
by null Julia Armfield'Stunning' DAZED 'Her prose sparkles' ELIZA CLARK 'A book of extraordinary sentences' MEGAN HUNTER From the bestselling author of Our Wives Under the Sea, a haunting novel of three sisters navigating queer love and faith at the end of the world. There’s no way to bury a body in earth which is flooded It is a fact consigned to history along with almost everything else It’s been raining for a long time now, for so long that the lands have reshaped themselves. Old places have been lost. Arcane rituals and religions have crept back into practice. Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their estranged father dies. A famous architect revered for making the new world navigable, he had long cut himself off from public life. They find themselves uncertain of how to grieve his passing when everything around them seems to be ending anyway. As the sisters come together to clear the grand glass house that is the pinnacle of his legacy, they begin to sense that the magnetic influence of their father lives on through it. Something sinister seems to be unfolding, something related to their mother’s long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always been unusually interested in their lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperilled world. 'Lyrical, haunting, unsettling' Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World 'Armfield's latest novel is the author at her finest' Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth ‘[A] signature cocktail of deadpan wit and staggering beauty’ Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller ‘Brilliant, original … an era-defining writer’ Kaliane Bradley, author of The Ministry of Time ‘Astonishing, ambitious’ Sarvat Hasin, author of The Giant Dark
Nick and Charlie (A Heartstopper novella)
by Alice OsemanA SUNDAY TIMES TOP 5 CHILDREN’S BESTSELLER A short novella based on the beloved characters from Alice Oseman’s acclaimed debut novel Solitaire and graphic novel series Heartstopper – now a major Netflix series. From the author of the 2021 YA Book Prize winning Loveless.
Can't Spell Treason Without Tea: A heart-warming cosy fantasy - and an instant Sunday Times bestseller (Tomes & Tea)
by Rebecca ThorneA heart-warming, sapphic journey brimming with jeopardy, magic and a love of tea – for fans of Travis Baldree's Legends & Lattes and TJ Klune.Two women wanted to open a cosy bookshop. They discovered a world of adventure.Reyna and Kianthe dream of opening a friendly book shop together, serving the very best tea and cakes. Worn wooden floors, plants on every table, firelight drifting between the rafters – all complemented by love and good company. But Reyna is an elite bodyguard to a vengeful queen, and Kianthe is the most powerful mage in existence. Leaving their lives behind seems . . . impossible. Yet they flee to Tawney, a town nestled in the icy peaks of dragon country. There, they open the bookstore they'd always wanted.What follows is a tale of mishaps, mysteries, dragons, and a murderous queen throwing the realm’s biggest temper tantrum. Through it, these two women will discover what they mean to each other – and their world.Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne is a gorgeous treat of a book, filled with cosy adventure, sapphic romance and good feelings. The story continues in the swashbuckling A Pirate's Life for Tea.Can't Spell Treason without Tea was a Sunday Times HB fiction bestseller in May 2024.
Feeling Singular: Queer Masculinities in the Early United States
by Ben BascomMuch of U.S. cultural production since the twentieth century has celebrated the figure of the singular individual, from the lonesome Huckleberry Finn to the cinematic loners John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, but that tradition casts a backward shadow that prohibits seeing how the singular in America was previously marked as unwanted, outcast, excessive, or weird. Feeling Singular: Queer Masculinities in the Early United States examines the paradoxical nature of masculine self-promotion and individuality in the early United States. Through a collection of singular life narratives, author Ben Bascom draws on a queer studies approach that uncovers how fraught private desires shaped a public masculinity increasingly at odds with the disinterested norms of republican public culture. In telling the stories of excessive American masculinities, Feeling Singular presents the Early Republic of the United States as a queer and messy world of social outcasts and eccentric personalities all vying--and in spectacular ways failing--for public attention. These figures include John Fitch (1743-1798), a struggling working-class mechanic; Jeffrey Brace (1742-1827), a formerly enslaved Black Revolutionary War veteran; Timothy Dexter (1747-1806), a self-declared "Lord" who secured a fortune through a risky venture in bedpans and whalebone corsets; Jonathan Plummer (1761-1819), an itinerant peddler and preacher; and William "Amos" Wilson (1762-1821), a reclusive stonecutter who became popularly known as "the Pennsylvania Hermit." Despite leaving behind copious manuscripts and printed autobiographies, they dwindled instead into cultural insignificance, failing to achieve what scholars have called the hallmarks of "republican masculinity." Through closely reading a range of texts--from manuscripts to hastily printed books, and from phonetically spelled pamphlets to sexually explicit broadsides--Bascom uses the language of queer studies to understand what made someone singular in the early United States and how that singularity points at the ruptures in social codes that get normalized through historical analysis. Departing from the likes of Benjamin Franklin, whom tradition positions as a paragon of self-production, this book offers instead typologies of the failed inventor, the tragic outsider, the flamboyant pretender, the farcical exhorter, and the disaffected exile.
Beautiful: The Story of Julian Eltinge, America's Greatest Female Impersonator
by Andrew L. ErdmanFrom the late 19th to the early 21st centuries, female impersonation was a hugely popular performance genre. Long before today's popular television shows, men in colleges, business, and even the military formed drag clubs and put on musicals and variety shows of all kinds with little fear of negative judgment. But no female impersonator was as famous, successful, or highly-regarded as Julian Eltinge (1881-1941). Eltinge, born William Dalton just outside Boston, started playing female characters and imitating women with his mother's encouragement as a child while his father shuttled his family around the Americas in search of a mining fortune that never materialized. The future drag star returned to Boston in his late teens where he quickly rose through the ranks of semi-amateur all-male musicals, then transitioned to vaudeville, and eventually starred in hugely successful musical comedies such as The Fascinating Widow (1910). For decades, the Julian Eltinge Theatre on West 42nd Street bore testament to his stature. But Eltinge longed to play serious roles which did not require him to impersonate women; it was a lifelong struggle. He constructed a hypermasculine offstage persona-- a cigar-loving former Harvard athlete who beat up anyone who questioned his manliness--most of which wasn't true. But Eltinge's efforts were essential in a culture increasingly focused on separating ?real men? from ?inverts? and ?perverts,? demanding men define themselves in new ways during a time of economic and cultural upheaval. During his heyday, Eltinge published a beauty and advice magazine for women, launched lifestyle-brand makeup and skincare products, and became a paid spokesperson for corsets and women's shoes, all without a hint of irony. Julian Eltinge's success with mainstream audiences, ever avoiding suspicions and scandal, says much about the emergent middle-class white heteronormativity of the era and what we have come to think of as the social construction of gender. Beautiful pays tribute to Eltinge and gives rich insight into his unique contributions to the transformation of cultural ideas about masculinity and femininity.
Experimental Film and Queer Materiality
by Juan A. Su?rezOften described as an art of abstraction and subjective introspection, experimental film is also invested in exploring daily objects and materials and in channeling, in the process, a peculiar perception of the modern everyday that this book calls queer materiality. Queer materiality designates the queer latency of modern material culture, which often inspired queer artists and filmmakers to envision wayward bodies and behaviors, and refers to the way in which sexual and social dissidence was embedded in the objects, technologies, substances, and spaces that make up the hardware of experience. This book studies a rich archive of queer material engagements in work by well-known filmmakers such as Andy Warhol, Barbara Hammer, Carolee Schneemann, and Jack Smith as well as under-recognized figures such as Tom Chomont, Jim Hubbard, Ashley Hans Scheirl, and Teo Hern?ndez. Combining history, formal analysis, and theoretical reflection, author Juan A. Su?rez shows how plastics, glitter, mechanical ensembles, urban ruins, garbage, amphetamine, film grain, and noise have been mobilized in the articulation of queerness for the screen. Experimental Film and Queer Materiality is an inquiry into the liveliness of matter and into the interface between sexuality and the material world.
Experimental Film and Queer Materiality
by Juan A. Su?rezOften described as an art of abstraction and subjective introspection, experimental film is also invested in exploring daily objects and materials and in channeling, in the process, a peculiar perception of the modern everyday that this book calls queer materiality. Queer materiality designates the queer latency of modern material culture, which often inspired queer artists and filmmakers to envision wayward bodies and behaviors, and refers to the way in which sexual and social dissidence was embedded in the objects, technologies, substances, and spaces that make up the hardware of experience. This book studies a rich archive of queer material engagements in work by well-known filmmakers such as Andy Warhol, Barbara Hammer, Carolee Schneemann, and Jack Smith as well as under-recognized figures such as Tom Chomont, Jim Hubbard, Ashley Hans Scheirl, and Teo Hern?ndez. Combining history, formal analysis, and theoretical reflection, author Juan A. Su?rez shows how plastics, glitter, mechanical ensembles, urban ruins, garbage, amphetamine, film grain, and noise have been mobilized in the articulation of queerness for the screen. Experimental Film and Queer Materiality is an inquiry into the liveliness of matter and into the interface between sexuality and the material world.
It Ain't Over Til the Bisexual Speaks: An Anthology of Bisexual Voices
by Various'Bisexuality allows for so many ways to desire and to express that desire. Plurality is at the heart of bisexuality' The bisexual experience is, by necessity, incredibly diverse - we are likely to be attracted to different genders, form part of multiple marginalised groups, and be perceived (depending on the gender of our partner) in wildly different ways..This anthology is a radical and ambitious attempt to capture the incredible multiplicity of bisexual identities. With essays that unpack the intersectionality and conflict of bisexuality with history, language, sexual violence, class identity, religion, polyamory, gender critical ideology, fatness, trans activism, the asylum system, literature and anarchy - this collection of bi voices demands to be heard..With contributions from Shiri Eisner, Hafsa Qureshi, Zachary Zane, Heron Greenesmith, and many, many more...
It Ain't Over Til the Bisexual Speaks: An Anthology of Bisexual Voices
by Various'Bisexuality allows for so many ways to desire and to express that desire. Plurality is at the heart of bisexuality' The bisexual experience is, by necessity, incredibly diverse - we are likely to be attracted to different genders, form part of multiple marginalised groups, and be perceived (depending on the gender of our partner) in wildly different ways..This anthology is a radical and ambitious attempt to capture the incredible multiplicity of bisexual identities. With essays that unpack the intersectionality and conflict of bisexuality with history, language, sexual violence, class identity, religion, polyamory, gender critical ideology, fatness, trans activism, the asylum system, literature and anarchy - this collection of bi voices demands to be heard..With contributions from Shiri Eisner, Hafsa Qureshi, Zachary Zane, Heron Greenesmith, and many, many more...
The Other Olympians: A True Story of Gender, Fascism and the Making of Modern Sport
by Michael WatersIn December 1935, Zdenek Koubek, one of the most famous sprinters in European women’s sports, declared he was now living as a man. Around the same time, the celebrated British field athlete Mark Weston, also assigned female at birth, announced that he, too, was a man. Periodicals and radio programs across the world carried the news; both became global celebrities. A few decades later, they were all but forgotten. And in the wake of their transitions, what could have been a push toward equality became instead, through a confluence of bureaucracy, war, and sheer happenstance, the exact opposite: the now all-too-familiar panic around trans, intersex, and gender nonconforming athletes.In The Other Olympians, Michael Waters uncovers, for the first time, the gripping true stories of Koubek, Weston, and other pioneering trans and intersex athletes from their era. With dogged research and cinematic flair, Waters also tracks how International Olympic Committee members ignored Nazi Germany’s atrocities in order to pull off the Berlin Games, a partnership that ultimately influenced the IOC’s nearly century-long obsession with surveilling and cataloging gender.Immersive and revelatory, The Other Olympians is a groundbreaking, hidden-in-the-archives marvel, an inspiring call for equality, and an essential contribution toward understanding the contemporary culture wars over gender in sports.
Cecilia
by K-Ming Chang'Hauntingly beautiful' GLAMOUR'Rowdy and razor-sharp' ALEXANDRA KLEEMANAn erotic, surreal novella about the ecstasies of intense friendships and obsessive loveSeven, who works as a cleaner at a chiropractor’s office, re-encounters Cecilia, a woman who has obsessed her since their school days.As the two of them board the same bus – each dubiously claiming not to be following the other – their chance meeting spurs a series of intensely vivid and corporeal memories. As past and present bleed together, Seven can feel her desire begin to unmoor her from the flow of time.Smart, subversive and gripping, Cecilia is a winding, misty road trip through bodily transformation, inextricable histories of violence and love, and the ghosts of girlhood friendship.PRAISE FOR K-MING CHANGBESTIARY‘Chang’s prose ravishes, ravages, rampages. An absolute lightning strike of a debut’ Kelly Link‘To read K-Ming Chang is to see the world in fresh, surreal technicolour… wild and lyrical, visionary and touching’ Sharlene Teo‘Fierce and funny, full of magic and grit’ Tash AwGODS OF WANT‘Blisteringly alive and unapologetically queer’ Guardian‘Strange, hilarious and unforgettable… a gift and a masterclass’ Bryan Washington‘Chang rewrites the world as a place of radical transformation’ New York Times Book Review
How It Works Out: The multiverse queer love story of the summer
by Myriam LacroixWhat if you could rewrite your relationship, again and again, until it works out?‘A stunner of a debut’ NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH‘A cause for celebration’ GEORGE SAUNDERS‘Exhilaratingly good’ KELLY LINKWhen Myriam and Allison fall in love at a show in a run-down punk house, their relationship begins to unfold through a series of hypotheticals:What if they became mothers by finding a baby in an alley?What if the only cure for Myriam’s depression was Allison’s flesh?How much darker - or sexier - would their dynamic be if one were a power-hungry CEO, and the other her lowly employee?From the fantasies of early romance to the slow encroaching of heartbreak, each reality builds to complete a brilliant and painfully funny portrait of love’s many promises and perils.WHAT READERS ARE SAYING:'Wow. I will be reading everything Myriam Lacroix puts out''Everything Everywhere All at Once for U-haul lesbians... I'm diving in again''I haven't read anything like it before... Fantastic debut'
Breaks Volume 2: The enemies-to-lovers queer webcomic sensation . . . that's a little bit broken (Breaks Series)
by Emma Vieceli Malin RydenBefore Heartstopper, there was Breaks . . . the enemies-to-lovers queer webcomic sensation. Now publishing in three volumes, catch the complete series in print for the first time.Ian and Cortland are all too aware that the bubble they've made for themselves can't last. Shifting relationships and tested friendships may be the least of their worries, though, as they learn more about each other and the pasts they'd rather leave behind. Familial legacy, fragile ambition and potentially devastating secrets; their budding relationship is going to need a stronger foundation than secrecy if they want to face what life has in store for them together.With millions of views and thousands of subscribers on webcomic platforms, Breaks is perfect for fans of popular LGBTQ+ graphic novels, such as Alice Osman's Heartstopper, who might be looking for something darker and more mature.
Experienced
by null Kate Young'Clever, sexy and joyful. I loved it' BETH O'LEARY 'A fizzing roller-coaster of a rom-com. The sexiest book you'll read all year and the most heartening’ CAROLINE O'DONOGHUE ‘A very relatable take on love that will pull at your heartstrings’ RED Bette loves Mei, but Bette and Mei are on a break, so Bette can catch-up on the decade of dating experiences she missed before she came out. So Bette is (reluctantly) on a dating odyssey: a quest to have lots of casual sex with lots of hot women and come back to Mei more experienced and more certain about what she wants. And now she has new friend Ruth as her dating guide, she can't possibly fail. It's just three months, then she'll be back with Mei. It's the perfect plan … isn't it? What readers are saying about Experienced… ‘An absolutely perfect romcom’ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ‘More bonking than Jilly Cooper’ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ‘384 pages of pure joy and heartbreak’ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ‘Phenomenal! Fun, sexy, big recommend’ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ‘I feel bereft now I’ve finished’ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
A Place of Our Own: Six Spaces That Shaped Queer Women's Culture - 'An inspiring celebration of lesbian camaraderie, activism and fun' (Sarah Waters)
by June ThomasLesbians are a people without a home. Perhaps that's why the ones we make for ourselves are so important.A highly readable cultural history of queer women's lives in the second half of the twentieth century, told through six iconic spaces'An inspiring celebration of lesbian camaraderie, activism and fun' SARAH WATERS'A cracking read, and a reminder of what shaped where we are now' VAL MCDERMID 'Riveting; indispensable; and suffused with a humane warmth' ALISON BECHDEL'A must-have for any queer bookshelf' TEGAN QUINFor as long as queer women have existed, they've created gathering grounds where they can be themselves. From the intimate darkness of the lesbian bar to the sweaty camaraderie of the softball field, these spaces aren't a luxury - they're a necessity for queer women defining their identities. Blending memoir, archival research and interviews, journalist June Thomas invites readers into six iconic lesbian spaces over the course of the last sixty years, including the rural commune, the sex toy boutique, the holiday destination and the feminist bookstore. She also illuminates what is gained and lost in the shift from the exclusive, tight-knit women's spaces of the '70s toward today's more inclusive yet more diffuse LGBTQ+ communities.'Pulses with delicious dykes and the spaces we have made for ourselves over the years. I welcome this story' STELLA DUFFY'A wonderfully rangy, conversational, and thoughtful exploration of lesbian geographies' DANIEL LAVERY'Immensely readable . . . A celebration of what was - and can be - built, with all the hurdles and ecstasies' ROSIE GARLAND
We Could Be Heroes
by null PJ EllisReal love is nothing like the movies. BIRMINGHAM, 2024. When American actor Patrick arrives in England, finding love is the last thing on his mind. Starring in a blockbuster superhero movie, he’s on a strict filming schedule, which does not include coming out as gay. But when Patrick meets Will – a local bookseller and drag performer, whose charm is impossible to resist – the temptation for a secret romance has never felt stronger. NEW YORK, 1949. Comic-book artists Charles and Iris aren’t like other married couples. They too are harbouring secrets of a dangerous nature. But together, they are creating a new kind of hero – one who is destined to bring Patrick and Will together… and might just change the world.
Spoilt Creatures: An Observer Best Debut of 2024 - 'compelling, cultish and utterly feral' Alice Slater
by Amy TwiggAn Observer top ten best new novelist for 2024'A simmering debut, heady with the possibilities of language and the righteousness of female rage' Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies'Lush and dreamlike - a sweltering novel, where the sunlight pulses with nightmarish dread'Colin Walsh, author of Kala'This lusciously verdant novel is rich in grit and dirt, in sensuality and oblivion'Lara Williams, author of Supper Club'A modern-day Dionysian cult of women in the woods - haunting and exhilarating'Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne'Emma Cline's The Girls meets Lord of the Flies . . . compelling, cultish and utterly feral'Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller______They thought they knew everything about us. The kind of women we were.Iris is adrift when she meets the beguiling Hazel, who lives on a women's commune. As she is drawn into commune life, Iris is soon seduced by the possibility of a new start away from a world of men who have only let her down. At Breach House the women are free to live and eat abundantly, to be loud and dirty, all whilst under the leadership of their gargantuan matriarch, Blythe.But is Breach House truly the haven it seems? And just how much can Iris trust her new family? When an unforgivable transgression threatens the commune's existence, Iris and the other women find themselves hurtling towards an act of devastating violence.Fierce and unapologetic, Spoilt Creatures is an intoxicating debut that pulls back the skin of the patriarchy and examines the female rage that lies beneath.
A Fairy Called Fred
by Robert TregoningFred the fairy works at a Wish-Granting Plant – and when he's finally given his very first wish to grant, he wants to get it right!Josh only has one wish. He's been invited to a princess party . . . and he needs a dress to wear! With time ticking and the party approaching, it's up to Fred to conjure up the PERFECT outfit, and make sure that Josh is the very best-dressed princess. Can Fred make this little boy's wish come true, and prove himself in the process?A Fairy Called Fred is a funny, joyful Cinderella story that celebrates the courage it takes to be yourself and to do something for the very first time. From the creators of the much-loved picture book Out of the Blue, it's perfect for fans of Grandad's Camper and Julian Is a Mermaid.
The Bump
by null Sidney Karger'Sid Karger has done it again, with this beautifully-written and timely story that resonates in a universal way. The Bump is a smart, deeply funny and heartwarming novel that perfectly captures modern parenthood, family and love. What a joy to read' ANDERSON COOPER Wyatt and Biz are freaking out. Their surrogate is ready to pop and their life as care-free New Yorkers is nearly over. So as a last hurrah, and to get their relationship back on track before the baby arrives, the soon-to-be-daddies embark on a road trip across America to pick up their bundle of joy. But when several unexpected detours cause long-buried secrets to spill, old wounds are reopened and the couple are forced to reexamine the meaning of family. After all, what’s a road trip without a few bumps along the way? 'Tender and humorous … Fans of Best Men will welcome this follow-up' STEVEN ROWLEY Karger makes it easy to empathize with his heroes, bringing impressive emotional depth to their relationship. The twisty road trip plus cameos from Biz’s large, boisterous family add plenty of fun. Readers will root for Biz and Wyatt to make it work' Publishers Weekly 'A touching adventure full of laughs, tender moments, and a ton of not-so-baby bumps in the road' Kirkus
The Big Ask
by null Simon James GreenAlfie Parker has bagged the hottest date to prom … hasn’t he? Bestselling LGBTQ+ writer Simon James Green makes his Barrington Stoke debut with a life-affirming teen romance. Harvey is popular, cool, plays football and has been in a relationship with his girlfriend Summer for as long as anyone can remember. Alfie is not popular, not cool, has a sick note so he doesn’t have to play any sport, and has been in a relationship with his Xbox since forever. So when Summer dramatically dumps Harvey just a few days before the school prom, no one is expecting Alfie to ask Harvey to be his date. Least of all Alfie. But sometimes amazing things can happen when you take a chance …
Lifting Off: A Life in Freefall
by Karen McLeodAn absorbing and often hilarious account of the author's 12 years as closeted cabin crew for British Airways. It's a story of love, creativity and acceptance, the transformative power of lesbian love and more. Told with the wit and verve that characterised her debut novel, Karen's memoir of flying as cabin crew offers a fascinating insight into the profound impact of long-haul life. Having come out as a lesbian she is forced to go back in as colleagues advise her that it is not ok to be gay, unlike male cabin crew. Brimming with vertiginous loops and extreme globe-trotting, against a backdrop of exotic locations, hotel bars and nightclubs, Karen slowly unravels as the inability to truly be herself reverberates. This is the story of how Karen finally came into land. How she learned to look after herself and discovered her true strength.
Lord of the Empty Isles: One curse. Two sworn enemies. Thousands of lives in the balance.
by Jules ArbeauxWinter's Orbit meets The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet in this stunning emotional yet action-packed adult science-fiction novel, perfect for fans of found family and queer-platonic relationships.One curse. Two sworn enemies. Thousands of lives in the balance. Five years ago, interstellar pirate Idrian Delaciel ordered a withering - a death curse - cast on Remy's brother, costing him his life. Now, Remy is ready to return the favour. Only when he casts the withering, it also rebounds onto him. The implications are unthinkable - that Remy is fatebound to his brother's killer. The only way to slow the curse is to close the distance between them, so Remy infiltrates Idrian's criminal crew, hiding his identity as the witherer. But Remy quickly learns that Idrian is the sole provider of life-saving supplies to thousands of innocents. And if he dies, they will perish with him. With more at stake now than just revenge, Remy must find a way to break the curse. Too bad for him - the only way to stop a withering is to kill the witherer. READERS LOVE LORD OF THE EMPTY ISLES 'Oh gods did I love it . . . a heartwarming, eye tearing story of a found family' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Wow! Jules Arbeaux has crafted a masterpiece with this book' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'A beautiful story . . . Probably my favourite book of the year so far!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'A magnificent debut, characterized by a heartwarming story, incredible characters, and a spectacular found family!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'This was one of those books that was addicting . . . It was fast-paced and tense and I was hooked almost immediately. It was incredibly emotional and I was on tenterhooks throughout' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Gender Theory: 'A blazing new voice in Scottish fiction'
by Madeline Docherty'An incredible debut from a blazing new voice in Scottish fiction' Image'Beautifully captures the pain of growing into yourself, and the intensity of all-consuming female friendship' ROSE WILDING'I inhaled Gender Theory in one intoxicating sitting . . . a powerful and necessary novel' RACHEL DAWSONYou lose your virginity to a boy from your gender theory seminar, and the first person you tell is Ella.Ella's with you at the party when you first kiss a girl. And Ella takes you to the hospital the first time you're diagnosed. Over the next few years you have a string of relationships and jobs, but you can always count on Ella to be there for you - until the drinking and the parties, the hospital visits and late-night calls, blur the lines of your friendship into something unbalanced and fragile, at risk of breaking altogether.The worst part is you can see it coming. The worst part is you don't know how to stop.Gender Theory is an incisive, affecting debut about illness, identity and how we care for those around us.
In Search of the Missing Eyelash
by Karen McLeod'Both comic and moving as it explores ideas of self, of gender, identification and loneliness'. Observer. First published in 2008 by Vintage this Betty Trask Award winning novel; a humorous LGBTQI+ coming of age story, is available for the first time in 17 years. Lizzie is lonely. Her parents have gone and her brother, who believes he is a woman, is missing. Most of all, though, Lizzie misses Sally, her former lover, who has gone off with a man with a fat neck. She starts to stalk Sally, collecting bathroom fluff, dust and pubes from Sally's bed – all the things that prove that somewhere life is taking place without her.