Page Turners: 20 LGBTQ+ Must-Reads for Pride Month 2025
Scroll past the same old beach reads? Pride Month’s rolled around, and it’s quietly flexing twenty queer titles worth your shelf space. Think of this as your low-key reading list upgrade—no confetti cannon required. From fake-dating reality-show romance to drag-queen–powered historical reboots, these picks highlight voices that rarely get front-and-center treatment.
Chip Pons’s debut romance, Winging It With You, kicks things off with a scenario straight out of your next streaming obsession: Asher Bennett gets ghosted at the airport, only to team up with charming pilot Theo Fernandez for a global competition series. Their on-camera “fake date” rapidly shifts into genuine chemistry, proving that queer joy belongs in every rom-com trope.
Next, Matt Cain serves up nostalgia and new love in One Love. Over one wild Manchester Pride weekend, university pals Danny and Guy confront two decades of unspoken feelings. This heartfelt exploration of friendship-versus-romance carries both the weight of real connection and the confetti-drenched spirit of celebration.
For something more urgent, Alejandro Heredia’s Loca transports you to 1999 New York. Sal and Charo’s story of survival, identity, and chosen family unfolds against a gritty, neon-soaked backdrop. Winner of a Lambda Literary Award, it’s a reminder that queer resilience often thrives in the most unexpected places.
Switch gears with Sidney Karger’s The Bump, a laugh-out-loud road-trip tale about soon-to-be dads Wyatt and Biz. Their cross-country babymoon is equal parts diaper-change panic and self-discovery, offering gentle reminders that “family” can mean a lot of different things.
Then there’s Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen, a bold mash-up of abolitionist legend and RuPaul’s Drag Race bravado. Imagine Tubman dropping bars instead of leading people to freedom—this novel reimagines her return to present-day America as a mic-drop moment.
Other highlights include I Think They Love You, a fresh voice delving into first-love turbulence against the backdrop of small-town drama, plus fifteen more selections spanning memoirs, speculative fiction, and graphic novels. You’ll find rom-coms that leave you weak in the knees, biographies that challenge what you thought you knew, and essays that blend cultural critique with personal revelation.
Each entry on this list celebrates queer joy, a counterpoint to narratives fixated on pain. As Chip Pons told E! News, “queer joy is at the center,” and that energy pulses through every story here. Whether you shuffle these into your Pride Month TBR or pepper them through your summer rotation, you’ll get a taste of that cheesy rom-com magic, thought-provoking history rewrites, and genuine moments of community.
So if your Kindle’s feeling neglected or your bookshelf looks suspiciously straight, consider this your literary pride parade. Load up on these LGBTQ+ reads and let them remind you why representation matters—without demanding a standing ovation. Anyway, that’s the deal. Do with it what you will.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and E! News, Lambda Literary Foundation
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
