Best lgbtq romance novel

The 20 Best Queer Romances of All Time

What are the characteristics of a truly amazing queer love story?

Most straight romance novels are given the stamp of approval when their two main characters — regardless of circumstances — end the book with a happily ever after. Judging gay romances by this criteria is a minuscule more complicated, mostly because so many of the early narratives to even begin to feel on queer love could often only mention them peripherally to avoid censorship and public decency laws. Even when queer romances were explicit, many were steeped in trauma, malaise, and hand wringing, matching the real world repercussions of being gay in less accepting times. Nowadays, finding a queer romance can be as easy as spotting two cartoons of the same sex on the front of a book’s cover. But will that method really bring you the leading results?

Queer love stories are more than just romantic plot points They’re about a vibe — which makes them both hard to quantify and infinitely exciting when you discover another great one. Pride month isn’t just the time

The Best LGBTQ+ Romance Books

Over the past decade there has been an increase in the visibility of romance novels that feature LGBTQ+ characters. What do you think the catalyst was—was there a certain book that became unexpectedly popular, or does it reflect a wider push for diversity more generally?

I ponder that it was a continuing perseverance of LGBTQ+ writers, the ones who were constantly writing stories, and maybe moving on to the next one if the first one or two didn’t take off. I also think that there was a push from queer writers who wanted to see more bliss in books that featured queer protagonists. I remember seeing writers on social media push for more stories that dealt with the realities of our persecution, while also trying to form sure that it wasn’t all trauma porn for straight people. Queer writers banded together and were like: we want to be happy in books. We want to show hope.

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston did this particularly well. That was a pivotal one. I saw Casey recently and they referred to the book as ‘cotton candy,’ which I feel

Find LGBTQIAP+ Romances by trope, archetype, and/or theme here! All Romances are adult and contemporary unless otherwise noted.
B/P notes MC and/or LI identifies as bisexual or pansexual
A/D/Aro = MC and/or LI identifies on the asexual spectrum, as demisexual, or as aromantic
T/NB/GQ = MC and/or LI identifies as transgender, non-binary, and/or genderqueer
*Beginning of a romantic ARC in a series but not resolved in this book alone
Many links are Amazon or Bookshop affiliate. A small percentage of each purchased using this link earns money for the site, so please use these if you&#;re so inclined!

Please note that as is common with Romance, many of these books are in a series with recurring characters. All should be readable as standalones, however, unless noted otherwise.

Additionally, please be advised that this is more of a database than a rec list; I have not read most of these titles, and strongly advocate reading reviews for potential triggers etc.

Academics

F/F

M/M

M/F

Hold Me by Courtney Milan &#; Bm/Tf

Accidental Pregnancy

M/F

Age Gap

F/F

M/M

M/F