Lizzy's Pride Fiction Picks!

John of John

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532. London, 1837. Boston, 2019. Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots. One grows high and one grows deep and one grows wild. And all of them grow teeth. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab weaves a compelling narrative across different times and places, exploring the intertwined destinies and transformative journeys of three unique characters.

The Impossible Garden of Clara Thorne

Enchantment is in the air in this sweet, spicy queer fantasy romance for fans of The Spellshop and The Princess Bride. After a lonely childhood, Clara Thorne is finally living "happily ever after" as the magically-gifted gardener for the town of Moss. Sure, her closest companion is a surly hedgehog, and she's forever stuck on the first line of her novel, but she has a home. That is, until The Goddess chooses Clara for an important quest—to travel to the cursed town of Dwindle and grow them a garden. In less than a month. Only Clara's hiding a terrible secret: her magic doesn't work outside Moss. Worse, The Goddess has assigned the absurdly sexy, annoyingly cheerful Hesper Altanfall to keep her safe. Clara would rather eat thorns than...

Star Shipped

Cat Sebastian’s long-awaited foray into contemporary romance! A witty, emotional, and deliciously slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance between two co-stars on a popular sci-fi television series. Simon and Charlie, actors on a long-running sci-fi show, can’t stand one another. Charlie is impetuous, outgoing, and basically feral, and Simon thinks he should have stayed in reality television where he belongs. They’ve spent the better part of a decade quarreling over the spotlight and pretty much everything else, and everybody in the industry knows it. Now that Simon’s contract is finally done, he can move to New York, start fresh with work he actually likes, and get away from Charlie. Simon’s only problem is that people might assume he’s been pushed off the show due to being impossible to work with....

The Pairing

#1 New York Times bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue, Casey McQuiston's delicious romantic comedy The Pairing. Theo and Kit have been a lot of things: childhood best friends, crushes, lovers and now estranged exes. After a brutal breakup on a flight to their dream European food and wine tour, they exited each other's lives. Time apart has done them good. Theo is a bartender and aspiring sommelier with a long roster of lovers. Kit graduated as the reigning sex god of his pastry school and now bakes at one of the finest restaurants in Paris. All that remains is the unused voucher for the European tour that never happened. Four years later, it seems like a great idea to finally take the trip. Solo. Separately....

Call Me By Your Name

It's a deeply emotional story of a summer romance between Elio, a precocious teenager, and Oliver, a charming visiting scholar, set in the picturesque Italian Riviera. Their relationship evolves from initial desire to a passionate connection, exploring themes of love, longing, and self-discovery.

Homebound

Immersive, open-hearted speculative fiction debut that connects an irresistible cast of characters across six hundred years - for fans of Gabrielle Zevin, Kaliane Bradley, Emily St John Mandel, David Mitchell. 'A work of joyous and serious invention' KALIANE BRADLEY 'Gripping... hauntingly beautiful' MADELINE MILLER 'A big, bold, ecstatic world -- full of heart and wonder' RUTH OZEKI Six hundred years. Five interlocking lives. One computer game. And the many paths that can lead us home. It's 1983 and Becks can't wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. But for now, she has work to do - her programmer uncle, the only person who understood her, has left her a half-finished game to complete. What Becks is coding will outlast her by centuries and shape the lives of...

All That's Left in the World

All That's Left in the World by Erik J. Brown is a gripping young adult novel about two boys who find themselves as unlikely companions in a post-apocalyptic world. In the wake of a devastating pandemic, they must navigate survival, confront their pasts, and form a bond that could be the key to their future.

Giovanni's Room

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin is a poignant exploration of identity and forbidden love set against the backdrop of 1950s Paris. The novel follows an American expatriate, David, as he grapples with his sexual identity and the societal expectations imposed on him. His complex relationship with Giovanni—a charming Italian bartender—forces him to confront his deepest desires and fears in a world that feels both liberating and confining.

A Little Life

A Little Life is a poignant exploration of friendship and trauma, centring around four college friends navigating life in New York City. The narrative delves deeply into their complex relationships, with a particular focus on Jude St. Francis, whose past harbours dark secrets and significant challenges. As they age, the story intimately examines themes of love, despair, and resilience, offering an intense emotional journey.

Yeah the Boys

A bold, propulsive novel about male friendship and masculinity, set in the world of Holden Sheppard's bestselling debut Invisible Boys.Seven years after escaping their rural hometown, the boys – Charlie, Zeke and Hammer – are back, though not as we left them.Charlie's fighting spirit has faded as he's struggled to make it as a punk musician in Perth. The opening of a new gay bar by Curtis and Ahmed, an older gay couple who have become Charlie's mentors, offers him a different way to make his mark – but the bar's opponents have other ideas.Zeke is lost. He knows what he stands against – the closeted life and conventional success his strict Italian parents demanded of him – but doesn't know what he stands for. He surprises himself by joining a gay footy team: is it the mistake his friends think it is,...

Our Wives Under The Sea

In Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield, the story explores the profound effects of a mysterious deep-sea mission gone awry. When Leah returns home from the mission, she's not the same, leaving her wife Miri to grapple with the haunting changes. The novel weaves elements of love, grief, and the unknown, as it delves into the complexities of their relationship and the impact of Leah's unsettling experiences beneath the ocean.

Crux

A heartstopping story of friendship, thrill-seeking and defying expectations—the explosive second novel from the bestselling author of My Absolute Darling. Dan and Tamma are two Californian teenagers growing up dirt poor in the shadows of the Joshua Tree National Park, one of the world's great rock climbing meccas. Their mothers had once been teenage waitresses and best friends until their paths diverged. Now Dan's mother spends her days locked in her room, her dreams squandered and all her hopes pinned on getting her precociously clever son out of town and away to university. Tamma's mother holds no such ambition for her mouthy, queer, truant-playing, snaggle-toothed daughter, who everyone but Dan believes to be a troublemaker and no-hoper. But Tamma and Dan are fuelled by dreams of becoming legendary...

We Burned So Bright

We Burned So Bright is the heartfelt, queer, road trip of a novel from TJ Klune, the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Cerulean Chronicles and The Bones Beneath My Skin. Husbands Don and Rodney have lived a good, long life. Together, they've experienced the highest highs of love and family, and lows so low that they felt like the end of the world. Now, the world is ending for real. A wandering black hole is coming for Earth, and in a month, everything and everyone they've ever known will be gone. Suddenly, after forty years together, Don and Rodney are out of time. They're in a race against the clock to make it from Maine to Washington State to take care of some unfinished business before it's...

In Memoriam

WINNER OF WATERSTONES NOVEL OF THE YEAR - A gripping, heart-shattering love story between two soldiers in the First World War. It's 1914, and talk of war feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in an idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. At seventeen, they're too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle - an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the dreamy, poetic Ellwood - not having a clue that Ellwood is in love with him, always has been. When Gaunt's German mother asks him to enlist in the British army to protect the family from anti-German attacks, he signs up immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood. The front...

Sex is a Construct

The Lamb

'Deliciously dark and shockingly bold' KIRSTY LOGAN'Destined to become a classic' WASHINGTON POST'A new generation of horror begins with Lucy Rose' GENEVIEVE JAGGER A FOLK TALE. A HORROR STORY. A LOVE STORY. AN ENCHANTMENT.Margot and Mama have lived by the forest since Margot can remember. When Margot is not at school, they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. Strays, Mama calls them. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she satisfies her burning appetite by picking apart their bodies. But Mama's want is stronger than her hunger sometimes, and when a white-toothed stray named Eden turns up in the heart of a snowstorm, little Margot must confront the shifting dynamics of her family, untangle...

The River Has Roots

Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death. Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath. In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family. There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family's latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees. But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favour of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters' bond but also their lives will be...

Hammajang Luck

HAMMAJANG | adjective. Definition: In a disorderly or chaotic state; messed up. Chiefly in predicative use, esp. in all hammajang. Etymology: A borrowing from Hawaiian Pidgin. Source: Oxford English Dictionary. Edie is done with crime. Eight years behind bars changes a person—costs them too much time with too many of the people who need them most. And it's all Angel's fault. She sold Edie out in what should have been the greatest moment of their lives. Instead, Edie was shipped off to the icy prison planet spinning far below the soaring skybridges and neon catacombs of Kepler space station—of home—to spend the best part of a decade alone. But then a chance for early parole appears out of nowhere and Edie steps into the pallid sunlight to find...

Game Changer

The book that started it all! USA TODAY bestselling author Rachel Reid's beloved Game Changers series starts here, with a secret-relationship romance set in the world of professional hockey. New York Admirals captain Scott Hunter takes his pregame rituals very seriously. When a particular smoothie precedes Scott's breaking his on-ice slump, he's desperate to recreate the magic...and to get to know the sexy, funny guy behind the counter. Kip Grady knew there was more to Scott's frequent visits than blended fruit, but he never let himself imagine being invited back to Scott's penthouse. Or kissed with reckless abandon—and more. What goes on between them is hot, incredible and frequent...but also only on Scott's terms and always behind his closed apartment doors. Scott needs Kip in his life, but...

Detransition, Baby

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters delves into the lives of three women—Reese, Ames, and Katrina—whose paths intersect in unexpected ways. Through the complexities of gender, relationships, and parenthood, the characters navigate their desires and identities, exploring what it means to redefine one's life and family.

The Song of Achilles

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller reimagines the Greek myth of Achilles through the eyes of his companion Patroclus. Set against the backdrop of the Trojan War, this beautifully written novel explores themes of friendship, love, and destiny. It's a poignant and gripping retelling that brings new life to classic mythology.

Swimming in the Dark

The Maiden and Her Monster

The forest eats the girls who wander out after dark . . . An atmospheric dark fantasy rooted in fairytales, folklore, and sapphic romance. The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez is perfect for fans of Katherine Arden, Ava Reid, and Naomi Novik. As the healer's daughter, Malka has seen how the forest's curse has plagued her village. But the Ozmini Church only comes to collect its tithe, not to listen to heretics with false tales of monsters in the trees. When a clergy girl wanders too close to the woods and Malka's mother is accused of her murder, Malka strikes an impossible bargain with a zealot Ozmini priest. If she brings him the monster, he will spare her mother from execution. When she ventures into the...

Nick and Charlie

With special bonus content – a brand new Q&A with Alice Oseman 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. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? CHARLIE: “I have been going out with Nick Nelson for two years. He likes rugby, Formula 1, dogs, the Marvel universe, the sound felt-tips make on paper, rain and drawing on shoes. He also likes me.” NICK: “Things me and Charlie Spring do together include: Watch films. Sit in the same room on different laptops. Text each other from different rooms. Make out. Make food. Make drinks. Get drunk. Talk. Argue. Laugh. Maybe...