📖Pride Month TBRs, for you!

And finally girls and gays, it’s JUNE!!!!!

It’s that time of year to dive into queer romances and aggressively recommend queer books to anyone with a pulse (notice how I’m pretending I don’t die for these books the rest of the year?? HA!).

So anyway, whether you’re wrapping yourself in a cozy blanket or just trying to find a little bit of happiness in a crowded metro (like me), here are my favorite 12 queer romances to colour your days in VIBGYOR:

12. And They Were Roommates by Page Powars.

Honestly?? Just look me in the eye and tell me that the cover doesn’t scream DRARRY to you.
Meet Charlie: stealthy, sarcastic, and so not here for romance — especially not when his new roommate at Valentine Academy turns out to be Jasper, the emotionally oblivious heartbreaker from Charlie’s pre-transition past. Jasper doesn’t recognize him, and Charlie plans to keep it that way… right after helping Jasper ghostwrite swoony love letters for other boys.

What could possibly go wrong? Just endless late-night heart-to-hearts, unresolved feelings, and one very confused ex-crush.
It’s messy. It’s hilarious. It’s chaos at its finest.

. . .

11. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Writing a summary for this one is harder than I thought. My best friend told me to read this one and on a whim, I started reading it on a free online reading website (don’t look at me like that, I’m poor!). Now let me tell you guys that only a few books can catch my attention from the first page — and this one had me in the first few lines.

After decades of silence, Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to spill everything — from the seven husbands to the one true love that never made the headlines. But there’s a twist: she’s telling it all to Monique Grant, a struggling journalist whose life is falling apart… and who has no idea why she’s been chosen.

As Evelyn peels back the velvet curtain on old Hollywood’s glitz, grit, and heartbreak, Monique finds herself drawn into a story bigger — and more personal — than she ever imagined.

Evelyn Hugo always knew how to steal the spotlight — and she’s saving her most powerful performance for last.

. . .

10. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

God I need to re-read this one, it’s been ages!

Linus Baker wasn’t looking for magic — but magic found him anyway. Middle-aged, rule-loving, and quietly lonely, Linus lives a life measured in case files and tea mugs. But when a top-secret assignment whisks him away to Marsyas Island, he finds six magical misfits (including a fire-spitting wyvern and a tiny Antichrist with a love for buttons) and one fiercely protective, soft-spoken caretaker named Arthur.

The island whispers secrets. The children dare him to open his heart. And Arthur? Arthur might just make Linus question everything he’s ever known about rules, love, and what a family really looks like.

This is not just a story — it’s a hug in book form. A quiet revolution dressed as a fantasy. And Linus Baker? He’s about to go from invisible man… to hero of his own story.

. . .

9. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

One day I was craving for some black cat x golden retriever books. And then I stumbled upon this. I did thank the universe later.

Meet Ari: mad at the world, emotionally constipated, and in desperate need of a hug. He’s got fists full of rage, a brother in prison no one talks about, and zero clue how to talk about his feelings.

Enter Dante: barefoot poetry boy, loves birds, cries openly, and has zero chill. He offers Ari friendship, philosophy, and possibly a thousand inconvenient emotions.

Together, they tackle —
→ Fighting in the rain
→ Swimming in their boxers
→ Existential identity crises
→Repressed romantic feelings so intense they practically combust the desert

It’s soft. It’s painful. It’s so romantic. And it’ll wreck you in the gentlest, most beautiful way possible.

8. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

If you want to get your heart broken by a book (don’t act like this will be the first time…) Ocean Vuong is here.

The story here is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. A story told in the spaces between pain and beauty.

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a memory unraveling — a boy named Little Dog, writing to his mother, trying to make sense of inherited trauma, war, queerness, violence, love. He writes not to be understood, but to survive.

It’s not a novel that holds your hand — it holds your scars. It asks:
What does it mean to be made from survival?
To be Vietnamese in America?
To love men in a world that punishes softness?
To write when the person you need most will never read your words?

This book doesn’t tell a story — it bleeds one. Quietly. Gorgeously. And it leaves you with the kind of grief that feels like grace.

. . .

7. This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

I’ll not be pretentious and write stupid intros about this one.

Red and Blue are perfect weapons from opposite sides of a war that spans across time itself. They slip through centuries, tweaking history — always watching, always trying to win. Until the taunts in their letters turn into something gentler. Something dangerous.

Because how do you kill someone who knows you? Who sees you?
And how do you love someone whose victory means your undoing?

Their love is secret. Forbidden. Told through time-bending letters made of lava, beeswax, blood, seeds, shadows.
It grows from curiosity to obsession, from enemies to soul-deep devotion — all while the war rages on.

It’s devastating. Exquisite. And yes — it ends in love.

. . .

6. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Well.

Look. I’m sorry.

I couldn’t eat properly for an entire day after reading this. I swore I’d never recommend it to anyone — but it would be a huge shame not to include it in my list of favourite queer books. Even now, as I’m writing this, that old sadness is creeping back in. Just one piece of advice if you’re picking this one up: read the trigger warnings before you start. ALWAYS put your mental health first.

Four boys come to New York. They grow. They hurt. They try.
Jude, Willem, JB, and Malcolm — friends who become a found family. But A Little Life isn’t about the golden youth. It’s about after. It’s about pain that stretches decades. About how some wounds never close, no matter how many hands try to hold them.

At its center is Jude — brilliant, broken, beloved — a man who survives things no one should. And yet, he wakes up every day. His life is a study in quiet endurance and unbearable silence.

This is not a book that offers healing. It offers love. Raw, desperate, protective love — in all its flawed, failing, human forms.

. . .

5. The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun

No more sadness!! Dev and Charlie made me blush and giggle at 2 am, and I hope they have the same effect on you!

Dev Deshpande believes in love — the grand gesture, screaming-in-the-rain, true-love-will-save-you kind. And he’s made a career out of creating it… for other people. As a producer on Ever After, a Bachelor-style reality show, he crafts perfect fairytales. But Dev himself? Fully spiraling.

Then in walks Charlie Winshaw — tech genius, stiff as a reboot screen, emotionally repressed to Olympic levels. He’s the newest “Prince Charming,” here to rehab his image. Only one problem: Charlie doesn’t believe in love. Or people. Or himself.

So Dev gets assigned to “fix” Charlie. What he doesn’t expect?
Charlie falling — not for a contestant, but for him.

Bonus: For the desi readers, Dev is our boy!! And I will keep loving him till the end of time because we share the exact same thoughts on love and we both keep failing at finding our man!

. . .

4. If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio

If you adore brooding friendships tangled in secrets, love whispered between the lines, and tragedies that cut deeper than any dagger — then If We Were Villains is your dark, delicious poison. This one made me pick up Julius Caesar again and decode every single line just to connect with the book even more. If the world suddenly had only one copy left, I’d sell my soul to get it.

At Dellecher Classical Conservatory, obsession is an art form, and Shakespeare is religion. Oliver and his six friends live and breathe their roles — on stage and off. They drink, fight, flirt, love, and perform like their lives depend on it. Because in a way… they do.

Then one of them dies.

And the performance becomes real.

Ten years later, Oliver has served time for a crime he might not have committed. Now, he’s finally ready to tell the truth — but only if someone’s willing to listen.

. . .

3. Heartstopper series by Alice Oseman

MY BABIES!!!!! I’m still mad at Netflix for cancelling the series and randomly announcing a movie, as if a 2 hour film can capture all the emotions. Anyways, while we wait for the 6th and final volume of my precious golden boys, let’s read (or re-read) the previous books and swoon over young love!

This is the story of Charlie Spring — anxious, kind, and quietly out — and Nick Nelson — rugby boy, golden retriever soul, and very confused about his feelings. It starts with a friendship. It turns into something slow, steady, and breathtakingly sincere.

There’s no loud drama here — just the everyday intensity of being a teenager, of falling in love for the first time, and of figuring out who you are while holding someone else’s hand. It’s sweet, it’s awkward, it’s real — and it’s unapologetically queer.

If you love stories that feel like a warm hug on a rainy day, where the romance builds with soft glances and stolen smiles — then Heartstopper will absolutely steal your heart (and hand it back with a little doodled flower and a rainbow sticky note!).

2. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

THIS ONE HAS MY HEART!!!! I CAN DIE FOR HENRY GEORGE EDWARD JAMES FOX — MOUNTCHRISTEN- WINDSOR!!!

This was the first queer book I ever bought, and was immensely proud of myself when I successfully hid the book under my physics notes a week before HS and dodged an hour long lecture on how I’m wasting my time from ma…..

If you are randomly scrolling on this platform and clicked on this, can I safely assume that you’ve also fantasized about enemies-to-lovers, late-night texts, and wildly inconvenient feelings between two people, at 3 am on a Friday night??? Because I have. And everyone around me knows a good enemies to lovers can bring me up from the pits of hell (read academic pressure)

Alex Claremont-Diaz is America’s First Son — smart, sharp, and just a little unhinged. Prince Henry of Wales is royal perfection — poised, polite, and emotionally constipated. They’re supposed to hate each other, and they absolutely do… right up until they don’t.

What starts with a royal scandal (and one very broken wedding cake) turns into fake friendship, turns into real friendship, turns into oh-no-I’d-die-for-you love.

It’s fun. It’s messy.
And through it all, it asks: What if love could actually change the world?

. . .

1. The Song Of Achilles by Madeline Miller

As a Greek mythology nerd still saving up to buy the Penguin Black Classics edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the story of Achilles and Patroclus was familiar enough. But nothing could have prepared me for the sheer amount of tears I shed over this one. There’s a reason I avoid tragic tales — and I knew this would wreck me. Yet, I still picked it up. So will you.

You’ve survived the Minotaur, battled Titans, and maybe crushed a little too hard on Nico di Angelo (I get you, bestie). Now, you’re ready for your final Greek mythology boss fight: The Song of Achilles.

This isn’t Camp Half-Blood. There’s no magical border or blue birthday cake.
Here, the gods are cruel, the stakes are fated, and the monsters aren’t always mythical — sometimes they’re pride, prophecy, or a mother who thinks your boyfriend isn’t good enough for her golden son.

Achilles is still a demigod, yes — but he’s not Percy. He’s sharper, quieter, beautiful in a way that’s almost unbearable.
And Patroclus? He’s the mortal heart of this epic. Soft where Achilles is sharp, honest where the world demands masks. He’s not meant to be the hero — but that’s exactly what makes this a love story you’ll never forget.

Together, they grow up under Chiron’s watch, whisper secrets under the stars, and walk hand-in-hand toward a destiny that’s already carved in stone.
You know how it ends — but you’ll still scream, cry, and highlight every line like it’s a prophecy from the Oracle.

. . .

That’s it! I had immense fun writing this!! It’s my first post here, please correct me if I made any mistake. Do let me know if you liked this and share tips on how I can improve more :)

Happy Pride, folks!