The Best Overlooked Books

 Don’t Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMahon (William Morrow)
The lesbian author of Island of Lost Girls once again weaves a story around a lost girl, this one who may have crossed into the land of fairies — or not. McMahon mines the dark land of family secrets.

Remembrance of Things I Forgot: A Novel by Bob Smith (University of Wisconsin Press)
What would you do if the boyfriend you were about to break up with just invented a time machine? Smith’s protagonist travels back in time, looking for do-overs of personal failures (and George W. Bush’s), but discovers that making positive changes has unforeseen negative consequences.

Darkness Embraced by Winter Pennington (Bold Strokes)
Lesbians, vampires, Byzantine political machinations — all you need to know to love this one.

Core by J.D. Glass (Outlines Press)
This punk novella is part graphic novel, part rock poetry from the Charm Alarm band member and author of Punk and Zen.

The German by Lee Thomas (Lethe Press)
In this powerful thriller, set in rural America circa 1944, a mysterious killer preys on young men — leaving pro-Nazi notes in the victims’ mouths — and the chief suspect is Ernst Lang, a gay ex-soldier who fled Germany years earlier.

Dying to Live by Kim Baldwin and Xenia Alexiou (Bold Strokes Books)
Romantic suspense ensues when an elite lesbian military operative must rescue a British socialite from Colombian rebels — and stop a virus from infecting them all in the process.