Hey, Her Campus readers! If you’re as much of a book lover as I am, I’m sure you’re already solidly on BookTok. While I find BookTok to be a super helpful platform for finding new book suggestions across a ton of different genres, the sheer amount of content in this tag can be overwhelming sometimes. As the semester picks up and finding time to read for fun becomes harder, here are five books for this fall that are actually worth your time, queer romance edition.
- Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
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I read this book over a year ago now, and it’s held its place as my all-time favorite queer romance novel almost without competition. I literally cannot say enough good things about it. In summary, after First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz and Prince Henry of Wales are photographed in an altercation at a royal wedding, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worst. The solution? Setting aside years of rivalry and staging a fake friendship until things blow over. This story follows every one of my favorite romantic tropes: fake friendship/dating, enemies to lovers, and forbidden romance. The entire cast of characters are funny and relatable and will absolutely capture your heart. One of the main characters also identifies as bisexual, providing some much-needed bi male representation. Additionally, Casey McQuiston is a genderqueer author who is vocal about respecting nonbinary folks’ identity and pronouns (Casey uses all pronouns), especially when they don’t conform to perfect models of androgyny. This book is so worth the read, and I could not recommend it more highly.
Also, if you end up loving Casey’s writing style as much as I do, they released their second novel One Last Stop earlier this year. One Last Stop has also been gaining traction on BookTok, although I personally liked RWRB a bit more. For all of your ensemble cast, found family, and queer romance needs, you should absolutely check out Casey’s work.
- The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller
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A BookTok classic, The Song of Achilles is a beautiful retelling of the Iliad that explicitly acknowledges the presumed romantic history between Achilles and Patroclus. This one is perfect for former Percy Jackson fans, or lovers of Greek mythology in general. While the pace of the book is a bit slower than some of the others on this list, I think it’s absolutely worth the read. However, you should be prepared to be absolutely heartbroken by the ending.
- The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Kline
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This is by far one of the most heartwarming books I’ve ever read. It literally feels like a warm hug. This fantasy novel follows the story of Linus, a lonely caseworker for the Charge of Magical Youth who is given a highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, home to six of the most dangerous magical children, and report back on its charges. Between the strange and wonderful children living there (most notably, Luci: a devilish six-year-old who is literally the son of Satan, and Chauncey: an unidentified green blob whose biggest dream in life is to be a bellhop), and Arthur Parnassus, their mysterious (and distractingly charming) caretaker, Marsyas Island proves to be the most challenging and exhilarating experience of Linus’s life. As he slowly becomes disillusioned with the government systems he’s always trusted to protect magical youth, seeing firsthand how vulnerable these children are, Linus must choose between the narrative he has always accepted as true and the family he has found with the residents of the island. This book majorly utilizes the found-family trope and is a really quick read, so if you’re looking for an easy read that’ll be sure to make you smile, this one will not disappoint.
- The Carry On series by Rainbow Rowell
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I read the Carry On series this summer, and it is officially my new favorite book series. I genuinely cannot believe how much I adored it, and it really rekindled my love for reading. For former Harry Potter kids, this series is *practically* a Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy fanfiction (seriously, I am shocked that J.K. Rowling didn’t kill this project before it was published, the similarities are insane). But for fellow HP fans who grew up to be severely disappointed in Rowling’s queerphobia, reading Carry On and falling in love with a magical universe that has explicitly queer characters, as well as POC main characters that are not egregiously stereotyped, can be so healing. This is also another enemies to lovers/found family plot that I love (are you sensing a theme to this list?). Rowell’s intention with the Carry On series is to subvert all of the tropes we know about Chosen One stories: what happens when we acknowledge supporting characters not just as sidekicks but as fully fledged individuals, when the “perfect love interest” starts doubting her happily-ever-after, when the hero’s enemy is really just a scared kid, and when his mentor is a sinister and power-hungry authority figure? And, perhaps the most interesting question, what happens to the Chosen One after his mission is complete and he’s no longer needed? Rowell answers all of these questions and more, and her sensitive representation of trauma, intimacy, and boundary work within romantic and platonic relationships really sets this series apart for me. This series is brilliantly written, full of nostalgia for HP fans, and its characters range from queer vampires to cottage-core lesbians. What’s not to love?
- History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera
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Okay, so if you’ve been on BookTok for a while, then you probably know of Silvera’s more popular novel They Both Die at the End. While I enjoyed that one as well, I don’t think it even comes close to being his best work. History Is All You Left Me is one of the single most heartbreaking books I’ve ever read, and I genuinely don’t think I’ve recovered from it. If you enjoyed They Both Die at the End and want more Adam Silvera content, or if you just… like pain? Read this book. The story follows Griffin, a high schooler grappling with grief after his first love and ex-boyfriend Theo dies in a tragic accident. Although Theo had broken up with Griffin and went on to fall in love with a new boy named Jackson, Griffin never doubted that he and Theo would end up together in the end. When Jackson shows up in town for Theo’s funeral, Griffin realizes they are the only people who truly understand each other’s experiences, bound as the two boys that Theo loved and left behind. Griffin and Jackson learn to lean on each other as they struggle to confront their past, process their grief, and eventually begin the process of healing. This book devastated me, and it really changed the way I think about love and loss. Adam Silvera is such a brilliant writer, and Griffin’s story is one that still sticks with me. This one might not be as fun or lighthearted as the others on the list, but I think it is absolutely worth your time if you’re okay with a heavier read.
So there!!! Curl up with a cup of tea, put on a relaxing Spotify playlist, and take some time to escape from the craziness of this semester with a good book. You deserve it. Happy reading, Her Campus!
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