Guest Post and Photo by Shalini Banerjee

Nick and Charlie will be back on our screens on August 3! If you can’t wait to see them and have already read ALL of the Heartstopper episodes on Webtoon then this list is for you!

Bloom by Kevin Panetta & Savanna Ganucheau

Now that high school is over, Ari is dying to move to the big city with his ultra-hip band—if he can just persuade his dad to let him quit his job at their struggling family bakery. While interviewing candidates for his replacement, Ari meets Hector, an easygoing guy who loves baking as much as Ari wants to escape it. As they become closer over batches of bread, love is ready to bloom . . . that is, if Ari doesn’t ruin everything.

She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick

Alex and Molly don’t belong on the same planet, let alone the same college campus. But when Alex, fresh off a bad (but hopefully not permanent) breakup, discovers Molly’s hidden crush as their paths cross the night before classes start, they realize they might have a common interest after all.

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Felix Love has never been in love and he desperately wants to know what it’s like. When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle…

Check Please! by Ngozi Ukazu

This webcomic turned graphic novel series shares many similarities with Heartstopper. Check Please! features Eric “Bitty” Bittle who’s a baker and a college freshman on the hockey team at Samwell University. Like Charlie falling hard for Nick, Bitty also catches feelings for someone – the definitely straight, captain of the hockey team, Jack Zimmermann.

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Frances has always been focused on studying and getting into university.  But then she meets Aled and they instantly become friends. But when the trust is broken Frances has to confront her past. And her guilty secret. The way Alice Osman writes friendships is truly something to fall for and if you want to read more about characters from Heartstopper then this is a must on the TBR!

Right Where I Left You by Julian Winters

School’s out, senior year is over, and Isaac Martin is ready to kick off summer. His last before heading off to college in the fall where he won’t have his best friend, Diego. Where—despite his social anxiety—he’ll be left to make friends on his own. Knowing his time with Diego is limited, Isaac enacts a foolproof plan: snatch up a pair of badges for the epic comic convention, Legends Con, and attend his first-ever Teen Pride. This book is for anyone who loves friends to lovers romance!

Cheer Up: Love And Pom Poms by Crystal Frasier

An antisocial lesbian decides to join the cheerleader squad to make friends and round out her college applications. While her former best friend, the new cheerleading captain, a trans girl must keep her parents happy with her grades and social life to keep their support of her transition. Through the rigors of squad training and amped-up social pressures (not to mention microaggressions and other queer youth problems), the two girls rekindle a friendship they thought they’d lost and discover there may be other, sweeter feelings springing up between them.

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero O’Connell

Laura Dean is popular, funny, and SO CUTE … but she can be really thoughtless, even mean. Their on-again, off-again relationship has Freddy’s head spinning — and Freddy’s friends can’t understand why she keeps going back. This graphic novel has beautiful illustrations and shows us the impact a toxic relationship can have on your mental health.

Fence by C.S. Pacat, Johanna The Mad, Joana Lafuente, and Jim Campbell

Nicholas, the illegitimate son of a retired fencing champion, is a scrappy fencing wunderkind and dreams of getting the chance and the training to actually compete. After getting accepted to the prodigious Kings Row private school, Nicholas is thrust into a cut-throat world and finds himself facing not only his golden-boy half-brother but the unbeatable, mysterious Seiji Katayama.

 Mooncakes by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker

This YA romance is about a witch and a non-binary werewolf! Nova Huang works at her grandmothers’ bookshop where she helps them loan out spell books and investigate any supernatural occurrences in their New England town. One fateful night, she follows reports of a white wolf into the woods, and she comes across her childhood crush, Tam Lang, battling a horse demon in the woods. Pursued by dark forces eager to claim the magic of wolves and out of options, Tam turns to Nova for help. Together they investigate the demon and rekindle their feelings toward each other.

 Darius The Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram

This is the sequel to Darius the Great Is Not Okay and follows Darius’s life after his trip to Iran. It seems that he has everything: a boyfriend, an internship, a spot on the soccer team. When he starts hanging out with his soccer teammate and best friend of the school’s epic bully, he starts questioning his relationship with his boyfriend. This will give readers all the Ben/Charlie and Charlie/Nick vibes.

Running with Lions by Julian Winters

Bloomington High School Lions’ star goalie, Sebastian Hughes, should be excited about his senior year, especially summer camp. But when his estranged childhood best friend Emir Shah shows up at the camp, Sebastian realizes the team’s success may end up in the hands of the one guy who hates him. Determined to reconnect with Emir for the sake of the Lions, he sets out to regain Emir’s trust. But to Sebastian’s surprise, sweaty days on the pitch, wandering the town’s streets, and bonding on the weekends spark more than just friendship between them.

 Hani and Ishu’s Guide To Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar

Everyone likes Humaira “Hani” Khan but when she comes out to her friends as bisexual, they invalidate her identity, saying she can’t be bi if she’s only dated guys. Panicked, Hani blurts out that she’s in a relationship…with Ishita “Ishu” Dey. Ishu is the complete opposite of Hani. She’s an academic overachiever who hopes that becoming the head girl will set her on the right track for college. But Ishita agrees to help Hani if Hani will help her become more popular so that she stands a chance of being elected head girl. Despite their mutually beneficial pact, they start developing real feelings for each other.

 So This Is Ever After by F. T. Lukens

Arek has finally managed to behead the evil king but is forced to assume the title himself. However, this role comes with a catch: choose a spouse by your eighteenth birthday, or wither away into nothing. With his eighteenth birthday only three months away, and only his best friend Matt in on the secret, Arek embarks on a desperate bid to find a spouse to save his life. But his attempts at wooing go painfully and hilariously wrong…until he discovers that love might have been in front of him all along.

 Ready When You Are by Gary Lonesborough

Two Aboriginal boys meet on the Mish, a rural community in New South Wales. One who doesn’t want to accept he’s gay, and the boy who comes to live in his house and makes him realize who he is. This is a beautiful coming-out story about first love, self-discovery, and acceptance

Shalini loves books, coffee, and chocolate. She enjoys taking photos of them, learning new languages, baking, watching movies, and listening to BTS, and Taylor Swift.

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