Book picks similar to
New Sensations by Laran Mithras


bisexual
tbr-friend-refers
transgender

Zero Day Threat


R.M. Olson - 2020
    One charismatic mastermind. And the most dangerous heist the System has ever seen.Jez is a damn good pilot, and she’s always worked alone. Until she got picked up for smuggling, that is.Now she’s lost her ship, lost her job, lost her reputation, and is on the run from the law. So when a mysterious stranger in a battered pilots coat comes to her with an offer that sounds too good to be true, she reluctantly agrees to listen.All she has to do is fly one little job.Then she gets the details. She and a hand-picked band of misfit ex-convicts will be pulling a heist on Vitali “the Butcher” Dobrev, the most deadly weapons dealer and crime boss in the System. They’ll be stealing tech that could change the course of history. And the government, the mafia, and every enterprising criminal in the System would kill to get their hands on it.Thing is, Jez is out of options. She’s going to have to fly this job, and they’ll have to pull it off. And knowing Vitali, if they fail, dying is the least of their worries.Zero Day Threat is the first instalment in the space opera science fiction series The Ungovernable. Firefly meets Ocean’s Eleven in R.M. Olson’s fast-paced, kick-ass, wickedly fun series.

The Women of Primrose Square


Claudia Carroll - 2019
    As gossip spreads through Primrose Square, every relationship is tested, and nothing in this close-knit community will ever be the same again . . .

My Ladybird Story


Magus Tor - 2015
    He can't be the all American boy his dad wants him to be, he's bullied at school and he can't bear to look at himself in the mirror. While most boys his age are playing sports and kissing girls, John can only find comfort in the secret he keeps hidden away in a box in his room... When feisty Aureus crashes into his life, John starts the long process of realizing that it's what is inside us that counts and that true friends love us, no matter what our secrets are. It's time John learns to embrace the school taunt, "Ladybird" and grow into the person he is meant to be.

All That Glitters


Ashley Quinn - 2012
    Michelle is playful, determined and ambitious - Despite being the only child of a teenaged, alcoholic mother who sometimes lets her judgment of the men she allows in their home throw wrenches in her relationship with her daughter. Michelle knows what she has to do to leave the small, redneck surf town in Florida where she's lived her entire life to make it as a singer in Hollywood. Nothing - and nobody - will come between her and that goal. Alexis, who moves to Florida from New York City with her Jewish father, French Catholic mother and autistic younger brother, is wildly intelligent and becomes instantly enamored with the feisty Michelle after she accidentally wipes out in their driveway on her skateboard. Over the course of a year, the two girls become close, passionately involved best friends and, as high school starts, they begin to question whether their feelings toward one another are 'normal' and 'right', two things that Michelle desperately knows she needs to be in order to fit into their tiny, prying town. As high school progresses, rumors of their relationship surface among the other students. Michelle throws their friendship - and everything else - to the wayside, shattering Alexis's heart in the process and forcing Michelle to realize that no matter how much she tries to control her actions, she still can't control her feelings. Ten years after high school and Michelle is at the brink of stardom. Having just finished her first international tour, a guilty conscience forces the twenty-seven year old singer to return to Florida after her mother is involved in a bad car accident. Disillusioned with the direction of her career, she leaves her cautious, nit-picky agent and action movie star boyfriend - who is harboring a deep secret of his own that could ruin his image and career if it were to go public - to return home, tend to her mother and be back in Hollywood just in time to accompany Tyler to the premiere of his newest summer blockbuster. What on Earth could go wrong? What nobody, not even Michelle, counts on is crossing paths with Alexis Vlodosky again. Alexis is eager to move on after finishing her residency at the hospital as the harsh memories of high school have soured her taste of this small town. After one night, they quickly realize that the fire is still burning deep within each of them. Michelle has to make a decision, but when faced with scores of paparazzi, an alcoholic mother desperate to make amends before her own secret is revealed, run-ins with unsavory past acquaintances, gossipy nurses, a neurotic agent and a fake boyfriend that needs Michelle for his image just as much as she needs him for hers, who will run first?

As Beautiful As Any Other: A memoir of my body


Kaya Wilson - 2021
    As Beautiful As Any Other is a trailblazing debut of remarkable beauty, insight and candour.Praise for As Beautiful As Any Other'Transformative, sentimental, witty, and wonderfully authoritative. An intimate and stirring account of experiences at once universal and unique, from a perspective that's crucial to our understanding of ourselves, our relationships and our culture.' Amy Middleton, editor of Archer.'There is so much more to this book than meets the eye. Wilson is able to do that rare thing, fuse the personal with universal, the scientific with the emotional, without losing the impact of either. Instead, they are enhanced. An intimate portrait of family, transition and trauma, with fascinating digressions to marine science and climate change, crossing continents and themes with ease.' Fiona McGregor

Dryland's End


Felice Picano - 1995
    A science fiction adventure with social significance for the new millennium.

A Game Like Ours


Marissa J. Gramoll - 2021
    To the outside world, Bobby Anderson is an attractive, charismatic baseball star. But inside, Bobby holds secrets—including his closeted sexuality—and each secret alone has the power to destroy his carefully-constructed life.When his best friend Cody dies, Bobby is thrown into the unwitting role of supporter for Cody’s grieving fiancée, Lexie. The issue? Bobby has long-harbored feelings for her that he never allowed to surface. Torn between his growing attraction for Lexie and devotion to his deceased friend, Bobby is forced to re-examine his life and concern about divulging his sexual identity. Another secret spoken by Cody during his final moments eats away at Bobby’s conscience, driving the wedge of Cody’s death deeper. Once these secrets come to light, will Lexie ever be able to forgive them? Can she accept Bobby for who he is? Will she ever want anything to do with him again?

Stunted


Breanna Hughes - 2018
    She also has a very strict no-dating policy when it comes to coworkers. That is, until, she meets famous actress Elliot Chase on the set of her new film. The adrenaline rush of the stunts is nothing compared to the sparks that fly between them. After a passionate night together, a sex tape is leaked that sends Jessie and Elliot's private and professional lives into a spiral. Will the fallout be too much for them to last? Or will they find a way out of the mess together?

The Small Backs of Children


Lidia Yuknavitch - 2015
    . . In a war-torn village in Eastern Europe, an American photographer captures a heart-stopping image: a young girl flying toward the lens, fleeing a fiery explosion that has engulfed her home and family. The image wins acclaim and prizes, becoming an icon for millions—and a subject of obsession for one writer, the photographer’s best friend, who has suffered a devastating tragedy of her own. As the writer plunges into a suicidal depression, her filmmaker husband enlists several friends, including a fearless bisexual poet and an ingenuous performance artist, to save her by rescuing the unknown girl and bringing her to the United States. And yet, as their plot unfolds, everything we know about the story comes into question: What does the writer really want? Who is controlling the action? And what will happen when these two worlds—east and west, real and virtual—collide? A fierce, provocative, and deeply affecting novel of both ideas and action that blends the tight construction of Julian Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending with the emotional power of Anthony Marra’s A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Small Backs of Children is a major step forward from one of our most avidly watched writers.

Collided


Portia Moore - 2019
    It’s something I never wanted and decided I’d never have. Love nearly killed my mother. It devastated and destroyed her. I promised myself I’d never be captured or ensnared like she was. Love deceives. It isn’t genuine. It doesn’t last. It’s just poison…a silent killer. The one taste I got nearly killed me but I was fortunate enough to escape it. But then I met him, and love didn’t just catch me. I collided with it.

This Time for Me


Alexandra Billings
    When she started transitioning in 1980, the word “Transgender” didn’t exist. With no Trans role models and no path to follow, Alexandra did what her family, teachers, and even friends said was impossible: Alexandra forged ahead.Spanning five decades, from profound lows to exhilarating highs, This Time for Me captures the events of a pioneering life. An award-winning actor and history-making LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS activist, Alexandra shares not only her own ever-evolving story but also the parallel ways in which queer identity has dramatically changed since the Stonewall riots of 1969. She weaves a true coming-of-age story of richly imaginative lies, of friends being swept away by a plague that decimated the community, of her determination to establish a career that would break boundaries, and of the recognition of her own power.A celebration of endless possibilities, Alexandra’s bracing memoir is a fight-to-the-death revolution against all expectations.

Girl Love Happens - Season One


T.B. Markinson - 2018
     Colorado, 1992. Tegan entered her freshman year of college with an open mind. But when an innocent roommate back rub turns into her first girl-on-girl make-out session, she isn’t sure if she’s ready for the world to know she’s attracted to women. After a chance encounter with a hunky male classmate, Tegan’s brain swims with the bisexual possibilities. Gemma knows who she is, but she doesn’t expect Tegan to shout from the rooftops about their new relationship status. With the prying eyes of friends and jealous rivals, however, secrets may not stay hidden for long. Girl Love Happens: Season One is a boxed set of the first six episodes of a lesbian romance series infused with 1990s’ nostalgia. And, the boxed set contains bonus scenes you won’t find in the individual episodes. If you like tumultuous love stories, simmering chemistry, and colorful casts of characters, then you’ll love T.B. Markinson’s smart, sexy series. Buy Girl Love Happens to start the captivating romance series today!

The Complex


Brian Keene - 2015
    A young trans woman looking for acceptance. A suicidal middle-aged horror writer. A single mother worried about her child. A Vietnam veteran who feels the world has forgotten him. A pair of hunted would-be criminals. An elderly widow who lives for her cats. Two newlyweds just starting their lives together. And the serial killer known as The Exit.Until tonight, they were strangers -- to each other, and to themselves. Now, as their world teeters on the brink of an apocalypse and a murderous horde descends upon the neighborhood, they will have to reveal and embrace their true selves if they hope to escape...THE COMPLEX.

Southern Boys Trilogy: Books 1-3


C.A. Harms - 2016
    Which meant moving back home. Except there was one problem. 

 Home was where Reed would be…  

The man who once held her heart, then shattered it into a million pieces. 

 Grieving the loss of Rhetts dad, and learning to forgive those who have betrayed her, Kori was battling it all. But will she ever have the strength to forgive Reed? Finding Gavin – Book #2 Gavin was a broken hearted cowboy from Savannah... 

The one she fell for even though he tried to warn her away. Maria's entire life had been one rejection after another, always going after things that were just out of reach. Gavin was no exception. 

She wanted him, so desperately... 

But life had a way of making things unattainable, at least for her anyway. Just when things began to change, once again the darkness glooms, and Maria finds that her happy ending is again... 

Unreachable. Loving Colt – Book #3 Alexis and Colt never planned on crossing paths.  

Alexis and her three year old daughter were running from their past and Colt was looking for his future. Neither planning to find salvation in one another. 

 One night changed it all…  

And they had no hope of ever being the same again. Finding a way to make things work, when it feels like everything is against them, is something they will have to work hard to overcome. Will Colt be strong enough to handle Alexis' past? 

Or will it be too much?

This Is How It Always Is


Laurie Frankel - 2017
    He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess.When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don’t get to keep them forever.