Books like 'Raise It Up'
Readers who enjoyed Raise It Up by Nick Wilgus also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical gay romance young adult queer angst
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Boy Underground by Catherine Ryan Hyde
During WWII, a teenage boy finds his voice, the courage of his convictions, and friends for life in an emotional and uplifting novel by the New York Times and #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author.1941. Steven Katz is the son of prosperous landowners in rural California. Although his parents don’t approve, he’s found true friends in Nick, Suki, and Ollie, sons of field workers... -
Finley’s Way An Alternate Earth LGBTQ short story by Julie Mannino
Rated: 5.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter being kicked out of his village for being a homosexual, Finley isn’t sure how he’ll survive. He has skill as a carpenter, but he’s only fourteen and entirely alone in the world. He has no family, no community, and almost no money. He finds an abandoned shed and makes a friend with another teenager... -
Rock and Riot by Chelsey Furedi
With all the fashion and quirks of the 50's comes the vintage queer love story that you've never heard before. Rock and Riot follows the tales of teenage delinquents learning about gender and sexual orientations while still maintaining their fabulous hair... -
A Scarcity of Condors by Suanne Laqueur
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsJuleón "Jude" Tholet has survival in his DNA. His father, Cleon, lived through imprisonment and torture during Pinochet's military coup in Chile. His mother, Penny, risked everything to gain her husband's freedom and flee the country with their newborn son... -
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Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian
It's 1989 in New York City, and for three teens, the world is changing.Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city with his mother to live with his stepfather and stepbrother. He's terrified that someone will guess the truth he can barely acknowledge about himself. Reza knows he's gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media's images of men dying of AIDS... -
The Youth & Young Loves of Oliver Wade by Ben Monopoli
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA novel in stories, by the author of "The Cranberry Hush"At the heart of these twelve interconnected stories is Ollie Wade, a gay guy navigating life and love from age 13 to 28.At a middle-school dance, a boy keeps a secret from his date; on a subway platform, he realizes a young green-eyed stranger has the same secret... -
Pictures of You by Leta Blake
Growing up gay isn’t easy. Growing up gay in Knoxville, Tennessee is even harder. Eighteen-year-old Peter Mandel, a private school senior—class of 1990—is passionate about photography. Peter doesn’t have many friends, preferring to shoot pictures from behind the scenes to keep his homosexuality secret... -
Rock and Riot Volume 3 by Chelsey Furedi
These tough-kids gussy up for the big dance in style! In this third and final instalment of the online hit comic series "Rock and Riot". The three gangs may finally get the guts to pull the biggest middle finger to society, together. If anything can be learned from their rascality, the easiest way is never the fun way... -
Rock and Riot Volume 2 by Chelsey Furedi
The 1950's were all about rules and restrictions, but these teens don't give a damn.. -
Destination Unknown by Bill Konigsberg
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom Stonewall Award winner Bill Konigsberg, a remarkable, funny, sexy, heartbreaking story of two teen boys finding each other in New York City at the height of the AIDS epidemic.The first thing I noticed about C.J. Gorman was his plexiglass bra. So begins Destination Unknown. It's 1987 in New York City, and Micah is at a dance club, trying to pretend he's more out and outgoing than he really is... -
You Are Not Me by Leta Blake
Follow Peter into the summer following his senior year to face new beginnings, new friends, and old baggage. After a tumultuous final year of high school, Peter Mandel needs a break. It's the summer of 1991, and his secret relationship with his ‘best friend’ Adam Algedi is put on hold as Adam goes away to Italy for the summer... -
Ziggy, Stardust and Me by James Brandon
The year is 1973. The Watergate hearings are in full swing. The Vietnam War is still raging. And homosexuality is still officially considered a mental illness. In the midst of these trying times is sixteen-year-old Jonathan Collins, a bullied, anxious, asthmatic kid, who aside from an alcoholic father and his sympathetic neighbor and friend Starla, is completely alone... -
When You Call My Name by Tucker Shaw
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsTucker Shaw’s When You Call My Name is a heartrending novel about two gay teens coming of age in New York City in 1990 at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Named "this summer's most powerful LGBTQ+ novel" by GAY TIMES, this book is perfect for fans of Adam Silvera and Mary H. K. Choi.Film fanatic Adam is seventeen and being asked out on his first date—and the guy is cute... -
The Dove in the Belly by Jim Grimsley
At the University of North Carolina, Ronny's made some friends, kept his secrets, survived dorm life, and protected his heart.Until he can't. Ben is in some ways Ronny's opposite; he's big and solid where Ronny is small and slight. Ben's at UNC on a football scholarship. Confident, with that easy jock swagger, and an explosive temper always simmering. He has a steady stream of girlfriends... -
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Trailer Trash by Marie Sexton
It’s 1986, and what should have been the greatest summer of Nate Bradford’s life goes sour when his parents suddenly divorce. Now, instead of spending his senior year in his hometown of Austin, Texas, he’s living with his father in Warren, Wyoming, population 2,833 (and Nate thinks that might be a generous estimate). There’s no swimming pool, no tennis team, no mall—not even any MTV... -
The Dog in the Chapel by Anthony McDonald
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe tragic-comic story of two young men, aged 21 and 18, who fall in love in the summer of 1962, but who have the misfortune to be working as teachers in a Catholic preparatory school at the time. Their names are Tom and Christopher. In the opposite corner to them stands Father Louis, the elderly headmaster... -
The Sun, the Earth & the Moon by Larry Benjamin
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen seventeen-year-old Thomas arrives for his freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania, he thinks he is ready for anything. Anything arrives quickly in the form of Dondi Whyte. Dondi is handsome, glamorous, and rich—everything Thomas is not. Is Thomas really ready for anything?Thomas falls helplessly in love with Dondi and the two begin a love affair... -
Becoming by Jeanne Reames
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTwo boys, one heroic bond, and the molding of Greece’s greatest son. Before he became known as Alexander the Great, he was Alexandros, the teenage son of the king of Makedon. Rather than living a life of luxury, as prince he has to be better and learn faster than his peers, tackling problems without any help... -
Tin Man by Sarah Winman
From internationally bestselling author Sarah Winman comes an unforgettable and heartbreaking novel celebrating love in all its forms, and the little moments that make up the life of one man.This is almost a love story. But it's not as simple as that... -
All Princesses Die Before Dawn by Zuttion Quentin
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAugust 31st, 1997. In the bathroom of his suburban home, 8-year-old Lulu is trying on his mom's lipstick. He dreams of kissing his best friend, a neighborhood boy. Meanwhile, his teenage sister Cam covers her much-older boyfriend sneaking up to her bedroom by blasting the latest summer hits. In the kitchen, their mother is waiting for their father, who didn't come home last night... -
The Boy in the Rain by Stephanie Cowell
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsIt is 1903 in the English countryside when Robbie, a shy young art student, meets the twenty-nine-year-old Anton who is running from memories of his brutal childhood and failed marriage. Within months, they begin a love affair that will never let them go... -
Outfield Menace by Mark A. Roeder
"Outfield Menace" is the tale of Kurt, a fifteen-year-old baseball player, living in a small, 1950s, Indiana town. During a confrontation with Angel, the resident bad boy of Blackford High School, Kurt attacks Angel, earning the wrath of the most dangerous gang in town. When Angel finally corners Kurt, however, something happens that Kurt wouldn't have imagined in his wildest dreams... -
Pritty by Keith F. Miller Jr.
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOn the verge of summer before his senior year, Jay is a soft soul in a world of concrete. While his older brother is everything people expect a man to be--tough, athletic, and in charge--Jay simply blends into the background to everyone, except when it comes to Leroy... -
My Policeman by Bethan Roberts
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 67 ratingsDiscover the love story of the summer.This love is all-consumingIt is in 1950s' Brighton that Marion first catches sight of the handsome and enigmatic Tom. He teaches her to swim in the shadow of the pier and Marion is smitten - determined her love will be enough for them both.A few years later in Brighton Museum Patrick meets Tom...Categorized as:
queer contemporary historical 20th century love triangle m-m young adult friends to lovers -
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Liebestrasse by Greg Lockard, Tim Fish
During the final years of the Weimar Republic, Sam meets Philip in Berlin and they fall in love. Their romance is hit with an unspeakable reality as the Nazis come to power and fascism makes them a target. Part of the comiXology Originals line of exclusive digital content only available on comiXology and Kindle... -
You're the Problem, It's You by Emma R. Alban
The enemies-to-lovers queer Victorian romance follow-up to Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend, in which a young lord and a second son clash, but find themselves thrust together again and again by their meddling cousins... -
Cinnamon Toast and the End of the World by Janet E. Cameron
Rated: 3.85 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsStephen Shulevitz remembers the end of the world. Two o'clock in the morning on a Saturday night in Riverside, Nova Scotia, when he realises he has fallen in love - with exactly the wrong person. There are no volcanic eruptions. No floods or fires. Just Stephen, watching TV with his best friend, realising that life, as he knows it, will never be the same... -
Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa
A trans boy searches for a future―and a romance―in which he can live and love openly as himself in this heartwrenching YA reimagining of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice , part of the Remixed Classics series. London, 1812 . Oliver Bennet feels trapped. Not just by the endless corsets, petticoats and skirts he's forced to wear on a daily basis, but also by society's expectations... -
We Are Lost and Found by Helene Dunbar
Rated: 3.78 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsA poignant, heartbreaking, and uplifting story in the tradition of The Perks of Being a Wallflower about three friends coming of age in the early 1980s as they struggle to forge their own paths in the face of fear of the unknown...Categorized as:
queer young adult contemporary historical m-m 20th century found-family length-medium -
A Tale of Two Princes by Eric Geron
Rated: 3.31 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsWill these long-lost twin princes be able to take on high school, coming out, and coronations together—or will this royal reunion quickly become a royal mess? Edward Dinnissen, Crown Prince of Canada, loves getting the royal treatment at his exclusive Manhattan private school and living in a fancy mansion on Park Avenue... -
This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story by Kacen Callender
A fresh, charming rom-com perfect for fans of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and Boy Meets Boy about Nathan Bird, who has sworn off happy endings but is sorely tested when his former best friend, Ollie, moves back to town.Nathan Bird doesn’t believe in happy endings...Categorized as:
queer young adult contemporary m-m friends to lovers high-school bisexual historical
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