The Best New Book Releases Out June 4, 2024

Charles Lamosway is a white man who has been keeping a secret for more than 20 years: his neighbor Elizabeth, who lives across the river in Maine’s Penobscot Reservation, is his daughter. He’s been watching her grow up from afar, but he hasn’t seen her in weeks. Charles wants to find Elizabeth and make sure she’s safe — and he wants to tell her the truth. But telling her this secret could put everything she’s grown up with at risk, thanks to colonialist imposed standards around blood quantum.

This is a fun, sexy, and sweet queer romance about Mel, a bartender at a cocktail lounge. When Bebe walks in, they have immediate chemistry. Bebe is married and polyamorous, and Mel thinks this is the perfect opportunity to try casual dating — her divorce has left her jaded about love. But despite her best efforts, Mel finds herself falling for Bebe — and making things even more complicated, she might also have feelings for Bebe’s nonbinary wife, Kade. This is one of my favorite reads of the year so far!

Here’s another queer new release to add to your Pride month TBR, this one a sapphic pirate adventure! This is inspired by the maybe historical maybe folkloric figure Jacquotte Delahaye. Jacquotte was a shipwright in the 1600s in the Dominican Republic when her ship is boarded by Blackhand. The crew becomes indentured servants for this cruel pirate, but Jacquotte plots a way to free them with the help of a crew mate she is falling for: Theresa.

In this satirical take on the beauty industry, Sophia can tell soon after joining the skincare company HEBE that there are some red flags — but she can’t help but be pulled in by their promises of beauty. She grows closer to Tree, the founder at HEBE, and gets to test their new miraculous youthjuice moisturizer. When she learns the stomach-turning secret ingredient in youthjuice, she has to decide how far she’s willing to go for beauty. The description says that “youthjuice does to skincare influencers what Bret Easton Ellis did to yuppies. You’ll never moisturize the same way again.”

Author of Ace of Spades Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and author of Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating Adiba Jaigirdar have teamed up for this YA romance! Said and Tiwa used to be best friends until Said left to go to an elite boarding school and seems to have no time for his old friends anymore. When he’s back in town for the summer, though, Tiwa has to reluctantly ask for his help to save the Islamic Center, which the mayor wants to demolish.

You might recognize Molly Knox Ostertag’s name from books like The Girl from the Sea and The Witch Boy, but her newest YA graphic novel is darker than those — no pun intended. Mags is keeping a lot of secrets, like that she can’t seem to stop kissing a girl who has a boyfriend. Or that something brings her to the basement each night, leaving her bloodied and drained. When her childhood friend Nessa reappears in her life, Mags is forced to bring her secrets out into the light or risk losing everything.