11 Queer Rom-Com Novels to Read Now
These queer rom-coms are funny, heartfelt, and actually worth your time
I’ll be honest: queer rom-coms are doing the absolute most right now—and I mean that in the best way. They’re funny without trying too hard, romantic without being cheesy, and inclusive in ways that feel natural instead of performative. If you’re in the mood for love stories that don’t follow the same tired rules, this list is for you.
These are the queer rom-coms I keep recommending to friends who say, “I don’t usually like romance, but…”
Queer rom-coms also get to be unapologetically specific. They don’t flatten characters into “representation moments”. They let people be awkward, dramatic, unsure, loud, soft, and occasionally wrong. That’s what makes these stories land. They’re not trying to teach a lesson. They’re just letting queer characters fall in love, mess it up, talk it out, and try again. And honestly? That’s the dream.
You Want Queer Rom-Coms—Here Are the Good Ones:
Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian
Cat Sebastian’s long-awaited foray into contemporary romance! A witty, emotional, and deliciously slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance between two costars on a popular sci-fi television series.
Simon and Charlie, actors on a long-running sci-fi show, can’t stand one another. Charlie is impetuous, outgoing, and basically feral, and Simon thinks he should have stayed in reality television where he belongs. They’ve spent the better part of a decade quarreling over the spotlight and pretty much everything else, and everybody in the industry knows it. Now that Simon’s contract is finally done, he can move to New York, start fresh with work he actually likes, and get away from Charlie.
Last First Kiss by Julian Winters
“THE STUFF ROMANCE DREAMS ARE MADE OF.” – Ali Hazelwood, New York Times bestselling author
Sparks fly in this second chance m/m rom com when an unlucky-in-love event planner realizes the man-of-honor at the high profile wedding he’s planning is the same man who broke his heart.
They say you never forget your first kiss. But Jordan Carter wishes he could forget the one he shared with Jamie Peters as teens. And the one they almost shared again last year before Jamie made it clear he wasn’t the “right” man for Jordan to be with while he’s figuring himself out.
Now, Jordan’s fully focused on his career at 24 Carter Gold, his family’s event planning company, and ready to move on – until his boss assigns him to plan a new client’s high-profile wedding. The bride’s man-of-honor? None other than Jamie.
The Build-A-Boyfriend Projectby Mason Deaver
Bestselling and award-winning author Mason Deaver’s adult romance debut follows a journalist in a dead-end job who agrees to teach his disastrous blind date how to be a better boyfriend. Readers will delight in this sweet and steamy queer romance with trans representation!
Eli Francis is stuck. He’s stuck in an assistant position at the online magazine Vent when he should be a writer. He’s with a boss who dangles a promotion but would rather he just fetch the coffee. AND stuck working alongside the ex who has had no trouble moving up at work…or moving on.
When Eli’s roommates push him to date so he can get over his ex once and for all, they set him up with Peter Park. Tall, handsome, and unbelievably awkward. The date is a complete disaster, and further proof to Eli that love isn’t for him. But when his boss overhears Eli recounting the catastrophic night, he suggests teaching Peter to be a better boyfriend through a series of simulated dates so he can write an article about it.
Lucky Seed by Justinian Huang
A USA TODAY BESTSELLER
“Lucky Seed is a family saga, a romance, a bodice ripper–a crotch ripper too–a diasporic Asian American family novel, and a thriller. A family story for a family like this could never have just one genre and Huang knows it and has fun with it. The result is thrilling to read, addictive, and full of heart and hijinks. Reader, I cackled.” –Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
Succession meets Crazy Rich Asians in this chaotic, darkly funny romp about the lengths a wealthy family will take to ensure the birth of a male heir from the gay black sheep of their clan.
The billionaire Sun Clan of Greater Los Angeles is your typical American family, with power-struggling aunties, emasculated uncles, scheming cousins, scandalous secrets and a fortune teller on retainer. But at the end of each combative day, the Suns are chained together with golden handcuffs, whether they like it or not.
Lady Like by Mackenzi Lee
A BOOKPAGE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR – Two women set their sights on marrying the same duke, but instead of becoming enemies, they find themselves falling in love–though not with him.
“My new favorite romance author.”–Julia Quinn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Bridgerton series
“A genuinely, strikingly funny romantic romp. I inhaled it!”–Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Great Big Beautiful Life
Harriet Lockhart never planned to marry. She has spent her life defying expectations, playing male roles on London’s seediest stages, and doing whatever she pleases. When Harry is contacted by her hitherto anonymous father, she finds herself at risk of losing the trust fund that’s subsidized her lifestyle–unless she begins to lead a more respectable life, starting with finding a husband.
Kiss Me, Maybe by Gabriella Gamez
In this steamy and charming romance, when a late bloomer goes viral for coming out, she decides to use her newfound fame to get her first kiss–with the help of a sexy bartender.
“Funny, smart, and spicy” –Abby Jimenez
Librarian Angela Gutierrez has never been kissed. But after posting a video about her late bloomer status and ace identity, she’s finally ready to get some firsts out of the way. Using her new influencer status to come up with a scavenger hunt idea in which the winner earns her first kiss, Angela realizes she may need some help to pull off the event. Enter Krystal Ramirez, hot bartender and Angela’s unrequited crush of five years. Despite vowing that romantic love isn’t for her, Krystal seems awfully determined to help Angela pull off the scavenger hunt and find true love.
Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet by Samantha Allen
One of Town & Country‘s Best Ghost Books That Will Keep You Up All Night and A Must-Read Book of Winter 2025
Adam Gallagher has knocked on thousands of doors. An ex-Mormon and almost-famous memoirist, he is used to sharing his life story with strangers. But this day, this house, is different. For it belongs to none other than Roland Rogers: Hollywood Hunk, and soon to be author. Roland has a story to tell and a decades-old secret to spill.
Except there’s a problem. Roland Rogers is dead. Not in the metaphysical realm–if he focuses, he can summon enough energy to communicate via the kitchen speaker–but certainly in the physical, and he needs Adam to pen his story before his body is found frozen beneath the avalanche of snow that squashed it. That means one month, a hundred thousand words, no breaks.
My Best Friend’s Honeymoon by Meryl Wilsner
The high spice, low stakes USA Today bestselling sapphic romance where two best friends go on a nonrefundable honeymoon together and discover that finding happily ever after can be as simple as asking.
Elsie Hoffman’s college boyfriend is her fiancé. Ginny Holtz has been in love with Elsie for almost a decade and a half.
When Elsie discovers her fiancé is already planning their wedding and honeymoon as a surprise and she’s expecting a white dress in seven days, she swiftly realizes she’s let herself become too comfortable with a future she might not want. She breaks things off, and a week later is on a plane to the Caribbean for her non-refundable honeymoon with her best friend Ginny instead.
On Her Terms by Amy Spalding
For fans of Casey McQuiston, Alexis Hall, and Meryl Wilsner, an actually hilarious, sweetly sexy, gloriously relatable sapphic rom-com about a fake relationship, very real emotions, and writing your own Hollywood love story – from the acclaimed author of For Her Consideration.
Fresh off breaking up with her boyfriend and swerving away from the conventional, TikTok-ready married life she never wanted, Clementine is ready to explore the alternatives. Not that she wants to be single forever, much less die alone. But at thirty-six, it’s time for her to experience new things–including in her love life. And though an invitation to a fake relationship to appease family sounds like a recipe for disaster, Clem finds herself saying yes to smart, spirited dog groomer Chloe Lee anyway . . .
Cover Story by Celia Laskey
A THEM BEST LGBTQ+ BOOK OF 2025
From the author of Under the Rainbow, a hilarious, emotional love story about an anxious publicist who’s tasked with keeping an extremely gay starlet in the closet–but ends up falling for her instead.
It’s 2005, and Ali is a publicist for Hollywood’s biggest stars. Part of her job entails keeping gay celebrities in the closet–which is pretty ironic, since she’s a lesbian. When Ali is assigned a new gay client, Cara Bisset, who’s breaking onto the scene with a (hetero) romantic blockbuster, keeping Cara’s sexuality under wraps becomes Ali’s biggest challenge yet.
Every Step She Takes by Alison Cochrun
A swoon-worthy sapphic romance following two women who go on a European adventure, from the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of the “sexy, insightful, and utterly charming” (BuzzFeed) Kiss Her Once for Me.
Thirty-five-year-old Seattleite Sadie Wells needs an escape. She’s desperate to escape her monotonous routines, the family business that has consumed her entire life, and the unexpected gay panic that has her questioning everything she thought she knew about herself. So when her injured sister offers Sadie her place on a tour along Portugal’s Camino de Santiago, she decides this is the perfect chance to get away from it all.
After three glasses of wine on the plane and some turbulence convince Sadie she won’t even survive the flight, she confesses all her secrets to her seatmate, Mal. The problem: the plane doesn’t crash, and it turns out Mal is on her Camino tour. Worst of all, Sadie learns that she is on a tour specifically for queer women, and that her two-hundred-mile trek will be a journey of self-discovery, whether she wants it to be or not.
Why I Keep Coming Back to Queer Rom-Coms
These stories don’t ask for permission to exist. They’re joyful on purpose.
If you’re building your TBR, this list is a solid place to start. And if you want more inclusive romance picks, reading guides, and bookish joy, you can always wander back through more LGBTQ+ Romance recommendations.
You may expect an article like this—but I promise, these books still hit. 💛
