This diverse YA anthology offers a glimpse into the vibrant world of contemporary LGBTQ+ literature. Featuring an impressive lineup of authors, the 'Read Proud' sampler showcases an array of compelling stories that celebrate the beauty, complexity, and resilience of queer experiences. Each narrative is imbued with an authenticity and emotional resonance that will linger long after the last page is turned.

Whether you're a longtime fan of queer YA or simply seeking to expand your literary horizons, this sampler is a good read. While entertaining, it also offering a reminder of the transformative power of representation.

READ PROUD 2024: Contemporary Edition focuses on 6 budding YA stories amplifying queer voices and stories. Each title provided only the first two chapters, which is a fun way to try new books, new genres, new authors! Of course, I was left wanting more, but I am glad I was able to receive an advance review copy for free and leave my honest review.
“Wish You Weren’t Here” is another romance with main characters from different social status. It seems the two main characters were friends but now separated yet still celebrate together for birthdays. One place of solace for Juliette is a summer camp, a place she calls home more than her home with bustling and intruding siblings. Lots of promise with this story and I can’t wait to pick up a copy to see how the story unfolds!
“Exes and Foes” was a lighthearted budding romance, albeit starts with a cafeteria altercation and visits to the principal’s office! Will definitely check this book out to read more about how the story unfolds.
“Prince of the Palisades” was set up well but I think it’s just not for me. I had a hard time getting into the story and keeping track of the many characters.
“Libertad” was full of tension from the first pages. Tension between siblings as well as with the overworked, over stressed mother. Stress of social pressure the main character experiences from not having a cell phone for a month to stay up with happenings outside the school day. It didn’t get too far into the protests or threats, as the description stated, but I expect the complete book to be an edge-of-your-seat page-turner!
“Cursed Boys and Broken Hearts” left me wanting to know what happens at the B&B! So much happened in so few pages, a quick page turner. So good!
“Playing for Keeps”, the final title, was engaging and I only scratched the surface to the depth of these two main characters! Already, it seems relatable with family experiences and parental expectations putting pressure on a teen in regard to her future. I can’t wait to read more!

I always love the Sampler publications! These are great for me to get a sense of upcoming books that might interest my students; they also help me prepare a list of possible example novels for their projects. Thank you for creating these!

This is a great collection of samples that allow one to have a glimpse into several books before committing to a specific one. I always enjoy reading samples of books I'm interested, and even those I am not. I've found several books I wouldn't have been likely to consider after reading an excerpt/sample of it.

This sampler is made up of contemporary romance books and is a great resource to discover new authors and books. I like that these samplers not only show you the covers and blurbs of the new releases but also provide a couple of sample chapters for each book so you can get a feel for the author's writing style as well as an introduction to the characters. Of the six books presented in this sampler, I would be excited to read Wish You Weren't Here by Erin Baldwin and Exes and Foes by Amanda Woody.

Overall this was a great way to discover some new books to add to my TBR and I liked how it championed LBGT+ voices and stories.

I absolutely loved this! It helped me discover the types of books I enjoy reading. As someone who often struggles with making decisions, I highly recommend it. 5/5!

Requested this specifically because I'm looking forward to reading Cursed Boys and Broken Hearts by Adam Sass. After reading the entire sampler, I am looking forward to reading more of these books, particularly the Amanda Woody book. I love reading samplers to find out about new and up and coming books.

Creating samplers with books is a good idea because it allows us to find some really cool gems.
I'll check out - Wish You Weren't Here by Erin Baldwin and Prince of the Palisades by Julian Winters, hopefully soon.

Thank you to NetGalley for this 'READ PROUD Contemporary YA Sampler." All opinions are my own.

I appreciate reading this sample to see a sneak peak at a few new books that feature proud LGBTQ+ individuals. Can't wait to read!!

3.5 stars.

This one was by far my favorite one in this series of books with samplers of other books in it!
Probably mainly because contemporary is the main genre I read... But I'm glad I read the other sampler books too! I just got way more recommendations from this book that I'm so excited to read once they come out!

I love these! They make my never ending growing tbr pile grow more! And I love it. Even love these more!

I absolutely love the idea behind these samplers and amplifying queer voices! There is a good selection and I'm really looking forward to a lot of these books, loved getting a peak at them. This is a great idea and I hope it's done more often (maybe for POC authors and female authors)

Very much appreciated the sampler! I'm sure that there will be books my students would be interested in.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC!

I enjoyed this!! I didn’t look to see what it was about but I am pleasantly surprised. It’s a good way to see what’s to come. I liked that it was a few chapters of each story.

This is a really amazing opportunity to discover new books!
I already heard a bit about “wish you weren’t here” and “exes and foes”, but I wasn’t 100% certain if I wanted to buy them or not. Since I now had to opportunity to read the first few chapters, I was able to get a feeling for the books and to make up my mind about buying them.
I also really liked the selection of the six books since they were all different. It was also super easy to navigate through the book by clicking on the cover at page 2.
Thanks NetGalley and thanks to the publishers for the ARCs!

Yet again this collection showed me books that I assumed wouldn’t interest me only to be completely wrong. Now there are a few more books that I have to look out for when they release. Thank you so much for making it easy to use as well with links. Highly appreciate that!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher and the arcs.

This is such a great way to introduce some new books! I already added a few books to my wishlist because I really liked what I read. I think my favourite so far is 'Wish you weren't here' by Erin Baldwin.

This sampler contains the first few chapters of 6 queer YA contemporary romance books. I hadn't heard from any of the books and was happy to discover some new titles. I liked the selection.

Thank you for the opportunity to read several excerpts. I found several of these to be interesting and sweet introductions and would definitely read two of the books listed.
The graphics for the books could not be seen in a kindle format and appear as gray/black squares.