Lately, I have made a few posts about underrated books and since June is Pride Month (By the way, HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!), I decided that it was the perfect time to write a post about underrated books with LBGTQ+ main characters. Here are some books that I loved and I desperately want more people to read them, because I think they deserve more love:
*In this post, you will see the abbreviations mc and li and I wanted to clarify what they meant. So, mc=main character and li= love interest.
Coffee Boy by Austin Chant – 960 rating on Goodreads
- Representation: Transexual man mc (#ownvoices) & bisexual man li
- Genre: New adult, romance
- Why read it?: Short book with funny and witty banter, character development, thoughtful conversations about gender and sexual orientation & a great romance.
Secondhand Origin Story by Lee Blauersouth – 24 ratings on goodreads
- Representation: Black lesbian mc, lesbian mc, asexual mc, gender queer mc (#ownvoices).
- Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
- Why read it?: A character driven story set in a fascinating world full of superheroes. A group of teens that has to fight against a corrupt, racist and ableist system.
The Story of Lizzy and Darcy by Grace Watson – 97 ratings on Goodreads
- Representation: Lesbian mc, bisexual mc, trans side character
- Genre: Contemporary, Romance
- Why read it?: Amazing Pride and Prejudice retelling, with the publishing industry as a background.
Future Leaders of Nowhere by Emily O’beirne – 298 ratings on Goodreads
- Representation: Lesbian indian-australian mc, bisexual mc
- Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
- Why read it?: Character development and a really interesting premise: a competition that it’s a mix between a summer camp and a Model UN.
These books are part of a series, but they can be read separetely and out of order.
Small Change by Roan Parrish – 539 ratings on Goodreads
- Representation: bisexual female mc
- Genre: Romance, Contemporary
- Why read it?: A story about a bisexual female tattoo artist that’s dating a guy, who is the sweetest, nicest love interest ever. It deals with gender and with the idea of a woman in a male dominated industry.
Invitations to the Blues by Roan Parrish – 431 ratings on Goodreads
- Representation: gay mc, black gay mc
- Genre: Romance, Contemporary
- Why read it?: Complex characters, interesting discussions about race and mental health, and a really adorable love story.
Honorary Mentions
These are 3 books that have a higher amount of ratings on Goodreads, but they still have less than 3000 ratings. I feel that these books deserve to be read by a lot more people and that’s why I’m including them.
Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera – 2989 ratings on Goodreads
- Representation: Latinx lesbian mc (#ownvoices)
- Genre: Young Adult, Fiction
- Why read it?: A main character with a captivating and honest voice, a lot of character development and important discussions about intersectional feminism, queerness and safe spaces.
How to Make a Wish by Ashley Herring Blake – 1529 ratings on Goodreads
- Representation: bisexual mc, biracial lesbian li
- Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
- Why read it?: A really sweet romance and a raw, complicated mother/daughter relationship that it’s addressed with so much honesty.
Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee – 2798 ratings on Goodreads
- Representation: bisexual and Chinese-Vietnamese mc (#ownvoices), lesbian li
- Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
- Why read it?: A cute book set in an interesting post-apocalyptic world, amazing conversations about gender and sexual orientation, villains that are not so evil and heroes that are not so good.
Have you read any of these books? Did you enjoy them? What underrated LGBTQ+ books do you reccomend?
Add me on
To be honest, I haven’t heard about most of these books. So this is a great post to discover some new books ❤
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I’m so glad! ❤ I hope you enjoy them if you end up reading any of them.
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I hope so too ❤
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This is such an amazing post, Sofia! ❤
I'm really excited about Not Your Sidekick, and there are so many books here that I haven't heard of yet? Thanks for all these recommendations. ☺️
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Thanks Lily! 💗 I really tried to look for books that I haven’t seen recommended often and that I knew maybe people didn’t know about them but would be interested in reading them. I’m glad people are finding them useful recommendations 🙂 I hope you enjoy some of these books if you end up reading them.
Not Your Sidekick is such a sweet book and it’s set in a really interesting world. It’s one of my favorite books about superheroes. I hope you enjoy it!
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Adding all of these to my TBR! Secondhand Origin story looks like my jam! I read Wendy Darling by Austin Chant and he’s an amazing writer and really want to read more of his books!
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I hope you enjoy the books! Secondhand Origin Story is one of my favorite books I have read this year and I’m really excited for more people to read it. Also, I need to read more books by Austin Chant, I read Coffee Boy a while back and loved it, but never read his other works.
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Second Hand Origin Stories!! My favorite thing every ❤ And Not Your Sidekick hit me with all of the unexpected feels, I was a gushy mess XD
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Ooh, these are some great recs! I’ve been looking for more diverse books to read this year and this post is just perfect for that. ❤
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Thank you! ❤ I’m glad you found it useful.
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This is quite a number of LGBTQIA books and I’m gonna add them all in my TBR. Thanks for sharing them.
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I hope you enjoy the books! 💗
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Hope so too. 🙂
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This is an amazing post; thank you so much for this list! 💗 I’m definitely going to add many of these to my TBR. I’m currently reading How to Make a Wish, and I’m really enjoying it so far! 😍
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Thank you! How to Make a Wish was one of my favorite books of last year! I really hope you love it as much as I did! 💗
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I actually haven’t heard about most of these, so thank you for bringing them to my attention! Lovely post 🙂
Brittany @ Brittany’s Book Rambles
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Thank you, Brittany! 💗
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Amazing post! I got so many great rec’s 😊
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Thanks! 💗
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a great list!!! i only read one of the books u mentioned, sadly, but i heard abt all the rest of them and been meaning to read them for ages 😮 it’s so cool that u focused on less popular books!! we gotta love them all the more!
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Thanks! That was the idea that we could give more love to some of these books 💗
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Reblogged this on LIVING THE DREAM.
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