Our Favorite YA LGBTQ+ Rebels

Nicholas Cox is the illegitimate son of a retired fencing champion, who dreams of getting the proper training he could never afford. With a lot of heart and a ton of talent, if not a lot of skill, Nicholas makes it on the elite Kings Row fencing team. He’ll have to work with his rival, the perfectionist Seiji Katayama, if the team will have any chance to make it to state championships – where Nicholas might finally have the chance to spar with his golden-boy half-brother. Nicholas is adorable and firey and perfectly matched against Seiji, who is cold and calculating. As they say, opposites attract, and these boys definitely have an attraction. The questions is – will they kiss? As the outsider element, will my little rebel Nicky find success and love? And more importantly, will Harvard (the team captain) and Aiden (the team bad boy) get together?!

Ekata is the black sheep of her family – she doesn’t want to claim the seat of Duke of Kylma Above by murdering all her siblings. She just wants to make it until she can leave to study at the University and pursue her passion for the natural sciences. And when her brother is finally named heir, she can finally follow her dream even if it means saying goodbye to the tantalizingly close, mysterious Kylma Below – the underwater kingdom that provides her family with magic and thus their power. But when Ekata’s entire family falls to a strange sleeping sickness, she inherits the title of Duke and her brother’s warrior bride. I love Ekata so much, and I adore her romance. She might not be the most sociable or the most charming, but Ekata has a lot of heart and I adore the romance in this book. Combine that with a fascinating fantasy world, and you’ve got a perfect stand-alone!

Okay, okay, okay! Both Lei and Wren are my favorite babies, and I love them and their romance so much! But while Lei might be the main character of this dazzling trilogy, Wren really stole the show for me. But we all know I’m a sucker for the cold, knife-wielding ladies. Wren and Lei are both Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. When Lei is plucked from her remote village to become a Paper Girl – one of the king’s chosen Paper consorts – she must learn to navigate the opulent, gilded cage that is the palace. But when she falls in love with the mysterious Wren, Lei will have to decide just how far she is willing to go for justice and revenge.