44 New LGBTQA+ YA Novels You Need This Spring

Pride Month isn't long enough to contain all these amazing reads, so we hereby declare spring to be Pride Season!

1. This Rebel Heart by Katherine Locke

Knopf / Via penguinrandomhouse.com, Dylan In The Details / Dylan in the Details / Via katherinelockebooks.com

Release date: April 5

What it's about: Locke's path of lyrical and magical devastation continues through mid-20th-century Europe with their newest YA novel, which follows a Hungarian Jewish girl named Csilla in the aftermath of the post-WWII Soviet takeover of her country and murder of her parents. Csilla and her aunt, the lone survivors of their family, have plans to escape, but Csilla can't leave the only home she's ever known without giving it one last chance to embrace her. Inspired by a successful protest in Poland, she and her new friends (who happen to include an angel of death named Azriel) use her position at the newspaper to make their voices heard, spurring a movement that promises to create change in Hungary forever. But is it truly enough to give Csilla and her people a home? Or is she only delaying the inevitable? Diaspora readers in particular will undoubtedly relate to this gorgeously poetic and heartbreaking tale of living in a place that may not love you back. —Dahlia Adler

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound. You can also try the audiobook version through Libro.fm.

2. Nothing Burns as Bright as You by Ashley Woodfolk

HMH Books / Via hmhbooks.com, Via ashleywoodfolk.com

Release date: April 5

What it's about: This magnificent novel is told in a nonlinear manner, a puzzle that slowly gets pieced together as you read. It begins with a fire. In the hours that follow, the history of the friendship of two girls and the precariousness of feelings and reciprocation between them unspool in stunning verse that will leave you breathless. —Rachel Strolle

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound. You can also try the audiobook version through Libro.fm.

3. She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers / Via simonandschuster.com, Alyson Derrick / Via simonandschuster.com, Rachael Lippincott / Via simonandschuster.com

Release date: April 5

What it's about: If this is how it reads when a couple in love writes a couple in love, then bring on all the author couples writing romance. The pair's first cowriting venture is a sweet and hilarious college-set rom-com about an unlikely pair of girls who make a pact to help each other land their girls. Alex is hot, a player, and no stranger to seeking an escape, but she isn't trying to escape Natalie, even if she can't say those three little words back. Molly is shy, anxious, and has no idea how to make friends, especially since her mom is her BFF. But Alex is convinced that if she can hook Molly up with her crush, then Natalie will have to see that Alex is way more good-hearted than she's given credit for, and everybody wins. But when Alex and Molly end up closer than either of them has ever been with anyone before, they'll have to acknowledge that both of them have more to give, if only they can each admit who the right person is. —D.A.

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound. You can also try the audiobook version through Libro.fm.

4. Blaine for the Win by Robbie Couch

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers / Via simonandschuster.com, Via robbiecouch.com

Release date: April 12

What it's about: Legally Blond goes to high school in Couch's sophomore novel about a boy named Blaine who runs for Student Council President in order to prove to his now-ex, Joey, that he's perfectly capable of being as serious as, say, Joey's new flame, Zach. What could possibly go wrong? —D.A.

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound.

5. Howl by Shaun David Hutchinson

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers / Via simonandschuster.com, Chris Piedra / Via simonandschuster.com

Release date: April 19

What it's about: Hutchinson's powerful gut punch of a novel follows Virgil, a boy who's just moved to Florida after his parents' split, and who's attacked at a party by a monster. Of course, no one in the town believes him, and his mom, best friend, and boyfriend are all back in Seattle. With no one taking him seriously, Virgil continues to have flashes of brutal memories of that night, while his body undergoes some strange and monstrous changes. Only through a deep dive into his thoughts, and support from loved ones, will he finally get to the truth about what happened that night. —D.A.

Get it from Bookshop or your local bookstore via Indiebound. You can also try the audiobook version through Libro.fm.

6. Sofi and the Bone Song by Adrienne Tooley

Margaret K. McElderry Books / Via simonandschuster.com, Sylvie Rosokoff / Via simonandschuster.com

Release date: April 19

What it's about: Tooley's sophomore novel is a lyrical and magical delight. Sofi is auditioning to take her father's place as a Musik, one of five musicians in the kingdom of Aell allowed to compose and perform original songs. Music is the only art in which there are strict anti-magic laws, so it is shocking when Lara, a girl who has never played the lute before, is able to sweep in and win the title over Sofi. On the same day, her father dies and Sofi becomes determined to prove Lara used magic in her performances, all the while trying not to fall for the girl who took the future she imagined for herself. —R.S.

Get it from Bookshop or a local bookstore through Indiebound. You can also try the audiobook version through Libro.fm.

7. I Am the Ghost In Your House by Mar Romasco-Moore

Delacorte Press / Via penguinrandomhouse.com, Ember. N Tetra / Via Author

Release date: April 19

What it's about: Pie has been invisible since the day she was born. Her whole life, it’s just been her and her mother traveling out of sight of everyone else. And Pie is very lonely. But when Pie gets to pick their next destination, she thinks back to the girl she fell for in Pittsburgh, the girl she wants to try and find again, the girl who has no idea she exists. —R.S.

Get it from Bookshop or a local bookstore through Indiebound. You can also try the audiobook version through Libro.fm.

8. Arden Grey by Ray Stoeve

Amulet Books / Via abramsbooks.com, JP Martin / Via raystoeve.com

Release date: April 26

What it's about: Photographer Arden is definitely at a crossroads, questioning whether she's asexual, her mother's leaving, and her best friend having a new number one now that he's started dating someone. It's all a lot to take, and the more Arden tries to be okay with it all, the more she realizes that maybe it's time for her to stop settling for what the people in her life have been willing to offer. —D.A.

Get it from Bookshop or a local bookstore through Indiebound. You can also try the audiobook version through Libro.fm.

9. Harley Quinn: Reckoning by Rachael Allen

Random House Books for Young Readers / Via penguinrandomhouse.com, Lauren Wright Photography / Via rachaelallenwrites.blogspot.com

Release date: April 26

What it's about: This Harley Quinn origin story takes us back to when she was Harleen Quinzel, a bi teen girl who's thrilled to have scored an amazing internship that'll provide both an escape from her abusive father and a full scholarship. But it turns out things are just as abusive in the lab, and she knows there's no advancing for her or the other young women until they take matters into their own hands. Thus the Reckoning is formed, a group of vigilante girls who are going to shake things up. But even as Harleen's having her heart stolen by one of the other girls, chaos is tearing them apart, and one of their own is killed. Now she has to decide how to move forward: into the future she'd always planned? Or into a revenge plot from which there'll be no return? —D.A.

Get it from Bookshop or a local bookstore through Indiebound. You can also try the audiobook version through Libro.fm.

10. I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston

Wednesday Books / Via us.macmillan.com, Sylvie Rosokoff / Via us.macmillan.com

Release date: May 3

What it's about: Shara Wheeler is the principal's perfect progeny, the prom queen, and Chloe Green's rival for valedictorian. She's also disappeared — a month before graduation she kissed Chloe and then vanished in a cloud of cryptic notes. Following the trail are Chloe and two others that Shara also kissed: Smith, Shara's longtime quarterback sweetheart, and Rory, Shara's bad boy neighbor. As they journey through their Alabama town, trying to decipher the clues Shara left behind, Chloe starts to realize there might be more to, not just the town, but also to Shara herself, than she thought. —R.S.

Get it from Bookshop or a local bookstore through Indiebound. You can also try the audiobook version through Libro.fm.

11. If You Change Your Mind by Robby Weber

Inkyard Press / Via harpercollins.com, Via harpercollins.com

Release date: May 3

What it's about: Harry's heart and mind are set on becoming a screenwriter, and he's going to do it as long as he can successfully avoid all the (cute, male) distractions along the way. But there's one cute male distraction that can't be ignored: his ex, Grant, who's back and making things complicated, all while Harry's losing his heart to Logan, the new boy in town. Now Harry's got to keep his eye on the prize while also navigating an impossible love triangle. How's a boy supposed to focus? —D.A.

Get it from Bookshop or a local bookstore through Indiebound. You can also try the audiobook version through Libro.fm.

12. Burn Down, Rise Up by Vincent Tirado

Sourcebooks / Via Publisher, Luis Rodriguez / Via Publisher

Release date: May 3

What it's about: For the last year or so, the Bronx has been plagued by sudden, unexplainable disappearances. Though Raquel has been trying to keep her head down and ignore it, the disappearance of her crush — Charlize's cousin — gets her attention. Not to mention her mother's mysterious illness that might be linked. As Raquel and Charlize team up to investigate, they discover an urban legend called the Echo Game, rumored to trap people in a dark world underneath the city. And they'll need to risk everything in order to win. —R.S.

Get it from Bookshop or a local bookstore through Indiebound. You can also try the audiobook version through Libro.fm.

13. When You Call My Name by Tucker Shaw

Via fiercereads.com, Via goodreads.com

Release date: May 3

What it's about: In this NYC-set novel taking place at the height of the AIDS crisis, Adam is devastated when Callum ghosts him after stealing his heart, but then learns Callum's actually seriously ill and being treated at the hospital. It's near that hospital that Adam meets Ben, who's just moved to the city and found that even there, homophobia persists. As the two boys grow closer, their relationship opens their eyes to the very possibilities of love the world's been trying to shutter for boys like them. —D.A.

Get it from Bookshop or a local bookstore through Indiebound. You can also try the audiobook version through Libro.fm.

14. The Queen of Junk Island by Alexandra Mae Jones

Via alexandramaejones.com

Release date: May 3

What it's about: Set in the mid-2000s, this debut stars 16-year-old Dell, who thinks she's getting an escape from everything when her family goes on vacation. But then her mom's boyfriend's daughter joins them, the whole area is a mess, and nothing's going to plan. But Ivy ends up being a better and more compelling surprise than Dell ever anticipated, stirring up curious feelings and providing a serious distraction to the unfolding of her family's past that's happening right in front of her. —D.A.

Get it from Bookshop or a local bookstore through Indiebound. You can also try the audiobook version through Libro.fm.

15. The Many Half-Filled Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor

Boyd Mills Press, Max Crawford Photography / Via mayamacgregor.com

Release date: May 3

What it's about: Sam Sylvester is a lot of things: curious, nonbinary, autistic, and a collector, specifically of stories of kids who died before turning 19. Having narrowly escaped that fate themself, Sam still feels on edge with their birthday approaching, despite the fact that things seem to be going pretty well...until they get sucked into a decades-old murder mystery. Now they're on track to finding a murder, if they can escape the doomed fate they'd always feared. —D.A.

Get it from Bookshop.

16. Nate Plus One by Kevin van Whye

Random House Books for Young Readers / Via penguinrandomhouse.com, Brandon Barnard / Via Publisher

Release date: May 10

What it's about: Nate's upcoming trip to South Africa for his cousin's wedding should be fun, but not with his ex-boyfriend present. Thankfully, his best friend, Jai, agrees to accompany him, and considering Nate's been secretly crushing on him, this could turn out to be a much more interesting trip than he bargained for. —D.A.

Get it from Bookshop or a local bookstore through Indiebound. You can also try the audiobook version through Libro.fm.

17. Cafe Con Lychee by Emery Lee

Via harpercollins.com, Emery Lee / Via emeryleebooks.com

Release date: May 10

What it's about: Theo is desperate to leave his Vermont town and his parents' Asian American café where he works. Their café's arch-rival, a Puerto Rican bakery owned by reluctant soccer player, Gabi's parents, is facing the same dilemma they are: the new fusion café that has opened in their town. Despite Theo's icy reception towards Gabi, the boys reluctantly work together to try and save their family's shops as new feelings arise between them. —R.S.

Get it from Bookshop or a local bookstore through Indiebound. You can also try the audiobook version through Libro.fm.

18. Dead End Girls by Wendy Heard