HAPPY PRIDE! I have so much going on this month, from insane goals with this TBR to an entire weekend festival in Salem, that I am so ready for this month to be here. With the amount of utter bullshit that’s been going on in the world, I am truly just exhausted by existing, and I am so ready to have a good month of reading. This is way more books than I’ve read in two months, but we’re just putting out some go big or go home energy this month. If you read my wrap-up, you know that I’m challenging myself to catch up on my overall goal of reading 100 books this year since this is the first year in several years that I’m actually struggling with that, and if anything is going to save my creativity this year, it’s going to be Pride.

Like last year, I’m splitting these up between gay, lesbian, and trans & nonbinary books, and I actually had to pull way back on the lesbian books before they completely overwhelmed my TBR, so that was exciting. Let’s dive in!

If This Gets Out by Sophie Gonzales & Gale Dietrich really does sound like every self-insert fanfiction ever, and I’m so here for it. After Gonzales’ incredible success at a Grease retelling, I’m so ready for everything else she’s got to serve, and secret gay relationship in a very popular boy band? YES AND PLEASE.

I’ve been gazing longingly at In Deeper Waters by FT Lukens for a while now, and I nearly put another book by them on this list, but I’ve got so many others to read that it’ll have to wait a bit. I am hella excited for gay pirates, though, and this looks like it promises to be extra gay.

I’m pretty sure When You Get the Chance by Ryan Tom was on last year’s list, but I digress. Last year’s Pride was rough for me, and I’m bound & determined to make this year eons better, and I’ve been excited about this book for ages now.

I just recently saw If You Change Your Mind by Robby Webber somewhere, and then it popped up on my Instagram the other day, so clearly the universe wants me to read this. I really would like to read this on a beach, just being as mindless as possible, and I hope that that’s in the cards for me.

I don’t know how I haven’t read Rise to the Sun by Leah Johnson yet given how much I enjoyed You Should See Me in a Crown, but we’re here now. Admittedly, the premise of this does not sound like anything I’d ever actively pick up, but I trust Johnson implicitly, so I’m probably going to love this.

Somehow, Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie was the book that I struggled more than anything not to read prior to Pride, even with McQuiston releasing in May. I bought this one a while back, and it sounds like it’s going to be a five star read for me, so the fact that I haven’t just said screw it and cracked it open is the real miracle.

Obviously, I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston is on this list. I saved One Last Stop for Pride last year, and I’ll continue to save McQuiston books for Pride every year because duh. She’s always got the perfect vibe for Pride, her writing is fantastic, and I can’t wait to be knocked flat by the characters.

Am I ever going to get over Late to the Party by Kelly Quindlen? No, truly never, and maybe I’ll reread it right around when I read She Drives Me Crazy, and maybe Netflix will finally hear me and adapt both of them.

I actually found Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly on a Buzzfeed list! It was not at all on my radar, and I haven’t seen it talked about anywhere on my Insta feed, but it’s got a cooking competition and a clumsy character, and that combo sounds like a 10/10.

I was a big fan of Emery Lee’s debut novel, Meet Cute Diary, and I am so excited to see what e’s got to serve up in Café Con Lychee. (That was truly an accidental pun, and I didn’t like it.) Again with the cooking, I’m sure to love it based purely on that, and really, what I’m hearing is that if I just read queer books that have food in it, I’ll be happy. (Facts.)

Act Cool by Tobly McSmith has been on my radar since last Pride, but it released in August or something, so I never ended up picking it up because apparently I couldn’t read queer books outside of Pride, which is a total lie because I definitely read a lot? I don’t know, it makes no sense, but we’re reading it for this year’s Pride.

As I’m drafting this post, it’s early May, and I haven’t yet read Steven Salvatore’s other book, Can’t Take That Away, but the cover is so damn gorgeous, and the premise of And They Lived… is SO GOOD, that I feel like I’m going to come out loving them both, and we’re just going to put that energy into the universe.