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November 2025 Queer Romances
Nov. 7th, 2025 09:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
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November is always a quieter month on the queer romance front, not quite ready for holiday romances but past the point when everything screams “Autumn!!” with leaf-filled covers. As such, we’ve got a fun variety of genres and categories waiting to be snatched up!
Son of the Morning
Author: Awkaeke Emezi
Released: November 4, 2025 by Avon
Genre: LGBTQIA, Paranormal, Romance
From New York Times bestselling author Akwaeke Emezi comes a steamy paranormal romance set in the Black South—a bold new foray that takes us on a journey of magic and fantasy, from the whispering creeks outside the city of Salvation to the very depths of Hell itself.
Tenderhearted Galilee was raised by the Kincaids, a formidable clan of Black women sequestered deep in the weeping willows and dark rushing creeks of their land. Galilee has always known that she’s different—that there is an old and unknowable secret around her very existence. It has been a hollow ache inside her since her childhood, something she assumes she will always have to live with.
Until she meets Lucifer Helel. He’s fronting as the head of security for her wealthy friend Oriaku’s family, protecting a mysterious, ancient artifact, but from the moment she lays eyes on him, Gali knows he’s not human. From her first incendiary touch, Lucifer knows something even Gali herself doesn’t—that she isn’t human either.
Leviathan. As Lucifer’s most trusted prince of Hell, Levi is ruthless and determined to eliminate the intolerable danger that is Galilee before she brings death and disaster to those he loves. While unseen battles rage between Hell, Heaven, and earth, Lucifer and Galilee’s attraction threatens to bring all the structures of their existence crashing down around them.
Soon, loyalties will be shattered and reformed as Kincaid secrets clash with the princes of Hell, driving even the most powerful to their knees. Galilee Kincaid must decide if she will step into herself and embrace the consequences of power in this astonishing, seductive, and wildly original fantasy.
I dare you to find an author with more skill at jumping between categories and genres than the massively critically acclaimed Emezi, who’s at it once again with their very first steamy paranormal romance (which I’m also seeing being called a Romantasy, and I’ve frankly just given up on trying to understand all the differences, but anyway, points to Emezi for being super on trend in a deeply unique way, as always). I loved Emezi’s debut romance, the grief-centric contemporary You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty, and now you’re telling me this one’s set in the Deep South and featuring the devil? No chance this one’s not amazing. (Also, I don’t care if you’ve got sprayed edge fatigue – this book’s got a seriously stunning design.)
The Dramatic Life of Jonah Penrose
Author: Robyn Green
Released: November 11, 2025 by Harper Perennial
Genre: LGBTQIA, Romance
Red, White & Royal Blue meets the theater world of London’s dazzling West End in this nuanced, queer debut romance in which a fake dating publicity stunt between rival co-stars results in romantic sparks neither of them expected.
After winning his first Olivier Award for his performance in the West End’s top musical, The Wooden Horse, fabulously talented Jonah Penrose is the new shining star of London’s theatre scene. But Jonah’s success can’t erase the pain of a recent breakup, fix his self-doubt, or remedy his father’s ailing mind.
Enter stage right, Dexter the West End’s golden boy, the newest cast member of The Wooden Horse, and someone Jonah finds to be intolerable and arrogant.
Everything about Dexter is infuriatingly perfect, from his dashing looks and casual but cutting notes on Jonah’s performances to his obnoxious sweaters that cost more than Jonah’s rent. Worse yet, while Dexter was supposed to play Jonah’s enemy in the show, his role switches to his love interest after a bout of illness temporarily sidelines half of the cast.
Jonah’s plan to stay as far away from Dexter as possible is thwarted when fans mistake their on-stage tension for romantic chemistry and tickets start selling like hotcakes. With fans desperate to catch a glimpse of the West End’s ‘hottest couple,’ the show’s producer pushes the co-stars to put on a show of their own and convince the world that they are in love.
While pretending to be head over heels for his co-star is the last thing Jonah wants, he reluctantly agrees. Yet as he gets to know Dexter better, he learns there’s more to him than meets the eye. As the lines between fiction and reality begin to blur and Jonah’s feelings become less of an act, he must decide if he’s willing to entrust his heart to someone again.
At turns both passionate and poignant, heartfelt and intimate, The Dramatic Life of Jonah Penrose is a love letter to the theater, to life in your thirties, and to what happens when you throw out the script and improvise the life you want.
I know we are all ready for something charming, sweet, and fun, and this theatre romance set in London’s West End totally delivers just that with a healthy dose of delightful romance tropes. It’s exactly what you want to read this season, and then lend to a friend who also needs a queer romance pick-me-up.
My Roommate from Hell
Author: Cale Dietrich
Released: November 11, 2025 by Wednesday Books
Genre: LGBTQIA, New Adult, Paranormal, Romance
A swoon-worthy YA rom com about an ambitious college student whose plans get derailed when he discovers his roommate is the prince of hell.
Owen is not going to college to have fun. Nothing is going to stop him from achieving his goals: study hard, get a good job, and set himself up for the rest of his life. The last thing he needs is to have a loud, obnoxious, and infuriatingly hot roommate. Especially since said roommate just so happens to be the prince of hell.
Prince Zarmenus has come to Point University for the first-ever Earth/hell exchange program, and he’s determined to make the most of it. Which may or may not include wild parties, bringing in random boys to his and Owen’s room, and accidentally setting Owen’s furniture on fire. Sparks fly (literally) as Owen and Zar clash, but Zar’s actions threaten to not only ruin Owen’s peaceful college life, but demon-human relations as well. To clean up his image, he asks Owen to be his fake boyfriend and teach him how to be a better human in exchange for an internship that will secure Owen’s future. That, and Zar will consider being a better roommate.
A deal is struck, and the two start pretending to be in a relationship where they each have agendas of their own. Only Owen has a secret―dating his mortal enemy, even if it’s fake, is the most fun he’s ever had.
Charming and fun, My Roommate from Hell is a rom com with a magical twist. Think just one bed, but that bed is in hell, surrounded by fire and brimstone.
I’ve been a fan of Aussie author Dietrich’s fun and quirky YA since his m/m spy romance debut, The Love Interest, and it’s been delightful to watch him jump around from rock stars to royalty to a fraternity-set slasher. But of all his titles, I probably have the highest hopes for this one, because I just think a Earth/hell exchange program is one of the funniest premises I’ve ever heard (plus I love me a college-set YA).
Husband of the Year
Author: M.A. Wardell
Released: November 18, 2025 by Forever
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance
Series: Teachers in Love #4
After a little delay for the Teachers in Love series to move over to trad pub, we’re finally seeing it come to a close as Olan and Marvin, the couple we met in the first book, near their wedding. Wardell never fails to bring both the steam and the heart, so I feel confident this one will go out with a bang (or two).
The Cuffing Game
Author: Lyla Lee
Released: November 18, 2025 by HarperCollins
Genre: Contemporary Romance, LGBTQIA, New Adult, Romance, Young Adult
Bestselling author Lyla Lee delivers a deliciously fun YA K-drama remix of Pride and Prejudice—if Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett were a college-run reality TV dating show.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that when there is a hot person, there is also someone with a crush on them.
Mia Yoon has a plan for everything. Get a full ride to her dream film school in Los Angeles, behind her mom’s back, and escape her middle-of-nowhere hometown—check. Produce her own dating show starring other people and their crushes—check. But everything goes off the rails when she has to enlist the help of her own secret crush, Noah Jang, a boy she’d rather hate.
Despite being a campus celebrity voted “most eligible student bachelor,” Noah can’t remember the last time he was in a relationship. And he’s perfectly content with that, thank you very much, especially since just the word feelings makes him uncomfortable. But he can’t stop staring at Mia, who keeps glaring at him in class. And when she asks him to be on her dating show—as one of the contestants—he can’t say no.
As Noah goes on more and more romantic dates on The Cuffing Game and Mia watches from behind the camera, something feels off. With the showrunner and contestant slowly falling for one another, can the show still go on?
Pride and Prejudice meets Love Island with bi Korean rep is really not something I ever expected to see in a YA novel, but trust Lyla Lee to come up with it. Lee is an elite group currently publishing in four categories (early reader, middle grade, young adult, and, as of this year, adult — definitely don’t miss her debut Sapphic romance, Love in Focus), but she always hits the age just right, and this sweet romance is thoroughly modern with its heavy social media angle and the fact that said show airs on YouTube rather than traditional cable. It’s fun, it’s cute, and it’s got a heavily queer secondary cast in addition to its bi heroine.
After mentioning Heather Graham, one of the Grande Dames of RT, so many times while recapping issues of Romantic Times, I got to sit down with her to talk about her career, the way the industry has changed, and of course, her memories of Romantic Times, both the magazine and the convention.
Happy Wednesday!
One of Carrie’s popular features in Smart Bitches After Dark are her movie reviews and recaps, which we’ve given the Very Original name, 
