LGBTQ+ Books That Don’t Feature Cis M/M Relationships (on my TBR)

Hello fellow bookworms 📚 It’s time for another Top Five Wednesday, which is a weekly meme which was created by Lainey and is now hosted by Sam! I haven’t participated in a while as May was a Rewind month and June has been the month of my hiatus + general uni stress. But I still very much love this meme, I’ve been participating in it for about 2 years now and I really missed doing the prompts!

Last week’s topic was LGBTQ+ Books That Don’t Feature Cis M/M Relationships but I didn’t get to do it as I was really busy with my research project. With being busy and all that I wasn’t able to do any post for pride month, so this is a great opportunity to catch up on that! Instead of talking about my fave books (e.g. I have talked about my fave f/f ships for T5W before) I will be talking about books that are still on my TBR & that I’m most excited to read (therefore, this is not a complete list!)

Here’s what Sam wrote in regards to the topic: This may seem oddly specific, but in honor of Pride being this month, I wanted to have a topic to celebrate LGBTQ+ books. But, the book community tends to, when given the chance, lift up cis m/m pairings the most. And while those books are still important and valued (we’ve even had topics covering m/m relationships earlier this year, which featured many cis m/m pairings), I wanted to shine the spotlight on some of those lesser known, recognized, and celebrated books. 

  

1. Peter Darling & Coffee Boy (Austin Chant) 🌈 I’ve been wanting to get into Austin Chant’s book for a while now, especially as they seem to be really underrated and should be talked about more. I’m most excited for Peter Darling and Coffee Boy! The first book is a Peter Pan retelling with a trans main character (+ a m/m ship) and honestly, I’m all here for a Peter Pan retelling, especially one that features a diverse cast of characters! Coffee Boy is about a trans guy who deals with being out at his new workplace and maybe falling for one of is coworkers. The things i that this is available only as an e-book (I need a paperback please) and I don’t have an ebook reader. Does anyone have any advice on that?

2. If I was your Girl (Meredith Russo) 🌈 This book has been on my TBR ever since I joined Goodreads (which was only in 2016, but still … two years) and I really, really want to finally read it! My excitement of the book actually hasn’t changed in those 2 years so I need to get my act together and get myself a copy! I’m very much tempted to buy it soon to treat myself for getting through my exams, but we’ll see what I end up doing. This is an ownvoices book about Amanda, a trans girl who is the new girl in school and falls in love with a boy, only that she isn’t out to anyone yet. This promises to be a highly emotional read and I’m excited to read more books that feature trans main characters!

  

3. Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World (Ashley Herring Blake) 🌈 I loved Ashely’s first book How to make a Wish, so obviously I have to read everything she writes now. Her newest YA book Girl Made of Stars is on my TBR too, but I feel like her new MG book doesn’t get talked about as much, so I wanted to highlight it! Usually I rarely ever read MG, but with some books I definitely make an exception. Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World is about a young girl losing everything in a tornado and falling for another girl in her class. I think it’s really important to have MG books about diverse characters, so children are able to see that themselves early on!

4. Mask of Shadows (Lindsey Miller) 🌈 To be honest I haven’t heard a lot of praise about this book, but that makes me even more determined to give it a chance. This is a fantasy book about assassins, adventure and a genderfluid main character who is a thief! From the synopsis this absolutely sounds like something I would love and especially when it comes to diverse books I always try to give them a chance, because I feel like sometimes they get critiqued a lot for things that fantasy books by white authors easily get away with. I also truly believe that this book would be something for me, as I adore Fantasy and love the concept of the book, so I hope to be able to get to it soon (especially as the paperback comes out in July)!

5. The Abyss Surrounds Us (Emily Skrutskie) 🌈 This is another book that has been on my TBR for quite a while and I have to admit I haven’t bought it yet because the paperback is a bit pricey. BUT I have every intention to buy this sometime (hopefully soon), because I finally want to get to it. The Abyss Surrounds Us is about gay pirates and a slow burn enemies to lovers romance between two girls, and from what I’ve heard the book is really great. The synopsis also says that there are genetically engineered monsters that need to be trained and overall this book just has a really intriguing premise and sounds like it has a lot of high stakes!

  

6. We are Okay (Nina LaCour) 🌈 I actually read Everything Leads to You and really enjoyed it, so I’ve been wanting to read We are Okay for a while now! This is about a sapphic girl who is currently dealing with a lot of grief and trying to get through it, which makes this a very emotional and impactful read. I think there is a f/f pair, but some Reviews say that it’s not as prominent, because a lot of the book focuses on the MC and how she struggles with what happened in her life. I feel like I might enjoy this more than Everything Leads to You as it sounds more like the type of story that would impact me for a long time and stay with me even after reading!

7. I Was Born for This (Alice Oseman) 🌈 Since everyone is screaming constantly on my timeline about this one, I finally had to add it to my TBR as well, especially as a lot of trusted bookworms have raved about it. The book is about Angel, who is a huge fan of the band the Ark and Jimmy their frontman who are unexpectedly thrust together. I absolutely love that this deals with fandom culture – and from what I’ve heard in  very good, accurate way! There are also a lot of diverse characters, Angel is muslim and Jimmy is mixed race, gay and trans + there is also bi rep as well. I really hope to love this book as much as everyone else and finally get into Alice Oseman’s other books!

8. Not Your Sidekick (C.B. Lee) 🌈 I’m currently really in the mood for some superheroes, so this one has moved up in my wish list by a lot! The book is set in a world where superpowers are common, but the MC Jess doesn’t have them herself despite her ancestry. However, she just found the perfect internship … only that it’s for the town’s most famous villain. Still she accepts, also in the hope to get closer to her dream girl. Jess is bisexual (+ Vietnamese-Chinese) and her friend Bells is a black trans boy. I heard this book is a lot of fun and the perfect lighthearted read, so I’m very excited to get my hands on it!

What are some of your favorite LGBTQ+ books that don’t focus on cis m/m pairings? 🌈