Exciting Queer Women, Bisexual, and Lesbian Books Coming Out in Early 2021

I’ve found things to love and hate in Broder’s previous work, but I am 100% thrilled at the description for what I think is her first queer book. Themes include dark humor, food, and Judaism. Rachel is a lapsed Jew who now treats calorie counting as a religion. Her therapist suggests she detox from her mother—the origin of the calorie counting. Soon Rachel meets Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman who works at a frozen yogurt shop. She is eager to feed Rachel—literally and figuratively.

If you’re looking for a great lesbian romance author, Anna Burke and her Seal Cove series is a great place to start. Night Tide is the second book in the series and tackles one of my favorite tropes: hate to love. Plus, this one is about vets! Lillian’s longtime enemy is Ivy, whom she first met when they were at veterinary school together. But then Ivy is forced to take a job at the same clinic as Lillian when she needs to move to be closer to family. Can she manage to work with Ivy? And more importantly, will they fall in love?

I mean, damn look at this cover! That, and knowing there’s #OwnVoices queer Black content, is about enough for me, but here are more details: this is the first book in a new fantasy series, Magic of the Lost. Touraine and Luca are two women, each with their own mission. Touraine is a soldier raised from childhood to be loyal to the empire. But now that she’s been sent back to the homeland from which she was stolen, she’s not so sure. Luca, imperial princess, is determined to get her uncle off the throne at all cost. Assassinations, rebellions, and more bring the two women’s stories together.

The first book in another new fantasy series, this one is for YA audiences. Beginning the “Deathless” series, The Gilded Ones is a story about a young woman named Deka. When Deka begins to menstruate, she is horrified to see her menstrual blood runs gold instead of red. Typically the fate for such women is worse than death. But instead, Deka is approached by a woman offering her another option. Would she like join an army of teen girls — just like her — who are the only hope of defeating the greatest threat of the empire?

Psychological suspense is not one of my go-to genres, but add bisexuality and academia into the mix and color me intrigued. Claire is relishing her success as a presenter at an important conference. But at the conference’s hotel bar, she runs into Gwen, her rival and former best friend. Gwen and Claire’s relationship runs back to high school, and continued into grad school, where they competed for a fellowship and became entangled with their department’s power couples. How exactly did Claire achieve her success—and what is she willing to do to hang on to it?

The fiction of Jarrar’s that I’ve read hinted at bisexuality / queerness, so I am excited to get my hands on her first memoir, which is supposed to embody all her identities at once: queer, Arab American, fat, and Muslim. The book chronicles a cross-country American road trip Jarrar took, inspired by an Egyptian belly dancer’s similar journey back in 1940. As she travels, Jarrar searches for and finds joy, even while she knows it might seem unlikely in a country openly hostile to everything she is.

Iconic queer YA author Malinda Lo has dipped her toes into the fantasy, science fiction, and thriller genres and now she’s hitting us with another new genre with this historical YA set in 1950s San Francisco Chinatown. The book features two teen girls in love, Lily and Kathleen. In this time and place, though, they are forced to risk everything for their queer love. At the same time as this virulent homophobia in the U.S., the so-called Red Scare threatens Chinese Americans like Lily and her family. It’s no wonder this is one of the most anticipated lesbian books coming out in early 2021.