Would you believe that more than 38 sapphic books come out this month? It’s true! Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to find out which books have queer representation, or what kind of representation they have. So here’s a big list of bi and lesbian books out this month, sorted by genre. I’ve highlighted a few of the books I’m most interested in, but click through to see the other titles’ blurbs!
As always, if you can get these through an indie bookstore, that is ideal, but if you can’t, the titles and covers are linked to my Amazon affiliate link. If you click through and buy something, I’ll get a small percentage. On to the books!
Adult
Fiction
- The Last One by Fatima Daas (Sapphic Fiction)
- Slug and Other Stories by Megan Milks (Queer Short Stories)
Romance
Sweet Surprise by Jenny Frame (F/F Romance)
Flora Buchanan doesn’t think a relationship is an option. A variety of mental health issues—anxiety, OCD, and PTSD—make it seem impossible to find love. Instead, she seeks joy in the one thing that is safe and ordered: her sweetshop in Glasgow.
Mack Sharkey is ready to start a new life after being released from jail. As part of the infamous Sharkey family, she took care of business on the edge of the law for the once criminal, and now legitimate, empire. After being sentenced to jail time her cousin should have shared, she’s promised a quiet life running her dream barbershop.
Flora and Mack are bound together by a night that changed their lives two years before and never thought they’d ever see each other again. But when Mack opens up her barbershop right next to Flora’s sweetshop, their connection comes roaring back.
Content advisory: This book contains instances of violence against women.
A Convenient Arrangement by Aurora Rey & Jaime Clevenger (F/F Romance)
Cuffing season has come for lesbians.
Jess Archer, digital journalist for the internet’s hottest lesbian media platform, has been assigned to research cuffing, from an up close and personal perspective. She’s not sure it’s really her thing, but the assignment gives her the chance to write something more substantial than her usual fluff pieces. All she needs now is a willing lesbian.
For Cody Dawson, signing up for Jess’s project is a no-brainer. She gets to date an interesting woman, enjoy her company, and not disrupt the tidy life she’s built for her son. Everything’s perfect until she starts falling for Jess. When she realizes she’s heart-deep in the feelings she’s agreed not to have, their convenient arrangement becomes anything but.
- Love by Proxy by Dena Blake (F/F Romance)
- Marry Me by Melissa Brayden (F/F Romance)
- Love, Accidentally by Jaime Clevenger and Aurora Rey (F/F Romance)
- Unexpected Goals by Kelly Farmer (F/F Romance)
- Gia’s Gems by Toni Logan (Lesbian Romance)
- Go Around by E. J. Noyes (F/F Romance)
- Pathway to Love by Radclyffe (F/F Romance)
- An Alaskan Wedding by Nance Sparks (F/F Romance)
- Holiday Wishes & Mistletoe Kisses by M. Ullrich (F/F Romance)
- Beulah Lodge by Cathy Dunnell (Lesbian Historical Romance)
Mystery/Thrillers
The After Party by A. C. Arthur (Lesbian Mystery)
Three women form an unbreakable bond in a sexy, suspenseful, and adventurous novel about empowerment and sisterhood through thick and thin.
Venus McGee, Draya Carter, and Jackie Benson are coworkers with a lot in common. They’re smart, independent, driven, and deserving of recognition—certainly more than they’ve been handed by a demoralizing boss. He’s the topic of conversation at their impromptu get-together after the company holiday party, where the threesome fantasizes about a life without him. There has to be an alternative to taking a deep breath and sucking it up. There is. It’s just not the one they expected.
When morning comes, Venus, Draya, and Jackie are blindsided by murder—a twist of fate that brings a startling new challenge to the table and forces them to navigate a hair-raising detour they never saw coming. For better and (unless they can help it) for worse, it’s going to turn their world upside down. What starts as a necessary bond of mutual trust soon morphs into an empowering and galvanizing friendship that Venus, Draya, and Jackie need now more than ever.
Horror
Parting the Veil by Paulette Kennedy (Sapphic Horror)
Some houses hold secrets that are meant to be kept forever…
When Eliza Sullivan inherits an estate from a recently deceased aunt, she leaves behind a grievous and guilt-ridden past in New Orleans for rural England and a fresh start. Eliza arrives at her new home and finds herself falling for the mysterious lord of Havenwood, Malcolm Winfield. Despite the sinister rumors that surround him, Eliza is drawn to his melancholy charm and his crumbling, once-beautiful mansion. With enough love, she thinks, both man and manor could be repaired.
Not long into their marriage, Eliza fears that she should have listened to the locals. There’s something terribly wrong at Havenwood Manor: Forbidden rooms. Ghostly whispers in the shadows. Strangely guarded servants. And Malcolm’s threatening moods, as changeable as night and day.
As Eliza delves deeper into Malcolm’s troubling history, the dark secrets she unearths gain a frightening power. Has she married a man or a monster? For Eliza, uncovering the truth will either save her or destroy her.
Fantasy
- The God of Lost Words (Hell’s Library #3) by A.J. Hackwith (Pansexual Fantasy)
- The Bone Shard Emperor (The Drowning Empire #2) by Andrea Stewart (F/F Fantasy)
- Carmilla’s Ghost by Robin Schadel (Lesbian Paranormal Fantasy – Vampires)
Science Fiction
You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo (Sapphic Space Opera)
Farscape meets The Great British Bake Off in this fantastic space opera You Sexy Thing from former SFWA President, Cat Rambo.
Just when they thought they were out…
TwiceFar station is at the edge of the known universe, and that’s just how Niko Larson, former Admiral in the Grand Military of the Hive Mind, likes it.
Retired and finally free of the continual war of conquest, Niko and the remnants of her former unit are content to spend the rest of their days working at the restaurant they built together, The Last Chance.
But, some wars can’t ever be escaped, and unlike the Hive Mind, some enemies aren’t content to let old soldiers go. Niko and her crew are forced onto a sentient ship convinced that it is being stolen and must survive the machinations of a sadistic pirate king if they even hope to keep the dream of The Last Chance alive.
- The Edge of Yesterday by C.J. Birch (F/F Science Fiction)
Comics, Graphic Novels, and Manga
Graveneye by Sloane Leong and Anna Bowles (F/F Horror Graphic Novel)
TKO Studios presents “GRAVENEYE” by acclaimed author Sloane Leong (A Map to the Sun, Prism Stalker) and renowned artist Anna Bowles in her debut graphic novel deliver a dark and beautiful tale of hunger and obsession.
What if a haunted house was not the horror, but the people who dwell within it …
Isla lives along in a large mansion deep in the woods. Her house has seen its share of blood horror, and the depths of the human soul. Isla has hired the young Marie to help her keep the big house tidy, but Marie brings demons of her own into Isla’s domain. Cursed with sentience, it is destined to observe the terrors that lurk inside each and everyone of us.
- Nightmare in Savannah by Lela Gwenn, Chris Sanchez & Rowan MacColl (F/F YA Fantasy Graphic Novel)
Young Adult
YA Contemporary
Going Viral by Katie Cicatelli-Kuc (F/F Contemporary YA)
When Claire Draper’s fictional love story goes viral in the wake of a pandemic, the line between reality and fiction is blurred. But will she be able to tell the difference?
Claire is a junior in high school when a worldwide pandemic strikes, and she’s in the epicenter of it all in New York City. Suddenly, Claire is forced to isolate with her family indefinitely, which means she won’t be able to see her friends or even her girlfriend, Vanessa, in person for a long time.
At first it’s not so bad, but the longer the pandemic lasts, the more Claire feels her priorities changing. That’s when she looks outside her bedroom window and notices something new: A girl who lives in the building across the street sitting on her fire escape.
So Claire starts writing a story online about a girl who falls for the girl across the street. To Claire’s surprise, the story goes viral-and it seems people think it’s true. But how true is true? And what if Vanessa finds out? Will Claire be able to manage her newfound internet fame before everything spirals out of control?
The Year I Stopped Trying by Katie Heaney (Sapphic YA Contemporary)
Booksmart meets The Perks of Being a Wallflower in this novel of overachieving, existential crises, growing up, and coming out, from the author of Girl Crushed and Never Have I Ever.
Mary is having an existential crisis. She’s a good student, she never gets in trouble, and she is searching for the meaning of life. She always thought she’d find it in a perfect score on the SATs. But by junior year, Mary isn’t so sure anymore.
The first time, it’s an accident. She forgets to do a history assignment. She even crosses “history essay” off in her pristine planner. And then: Nothing happens. She doesn’t burst into flames, the world doesn’t end, the teacher doesn’t even pull her aside after class.
So she asks herself: Why am I trying so hard? What if I stop?
With her signature wit and heaps of dark humor, Katie Heaney delivers a stunning YA novel the sprints full-force into the big questions our teen years beg–and adeptly unravels their web.
[sapphic main character]
- Fat Angie: Homecoming by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo (Sapphic Contemporary YA)
YA Mystery/Thrillers
The Ballad of Dinah Caldwell by Kate Brauning (Bisexual YA Thriller, F/F/M relationship)
Nothing is more dangerous than a girl with nothing left to lose.
Dinah Caldwell has been filling her father’s role since he abandoned their family four years ago. She and her grief-stricken mom run their subsistence farm deep in the Ozarks, making sure her younger brother never has to worry. Until the day Gabriel Gates, who owns everyone in Charlotte County, kills her mother to steal her family’s well.
Homeless, heartbroken, and alone, Dinah only has a single razor-sharp goal: revenge. And now that Gates has put a ten-thousand-dollar bounty on her head, she can’t trust anyone, but she also can’t take down the most powerful man in the mountains
by herself.
YA Fantasy
The Grimrose Girls (Grimrose Girls #1) by Laura Pohl (F/F, Trans YA Fantasy)
Four troubled friends,
One murdered girl…
and a dark fate that may leave them all doomed.
Once Upon a Time meets Pretty Little Liars in this queer, dark academia story about four reimagined fairy tale heroines who must uncover their ancient curses before it’s too late.
After the mysterious death of their best friend, Ella, Yuki, and Rory are the talk of their elite school, Grimrose Académie. The police ruled Ariane’s death as a suicide, but the trio are determined to find out what really happened.
When Nani Eszes arrives as their newest roommate, it sets into motion a series of events that no one could have predicted. As the girls retrace their friend’s final days, they discover a dark secret about Grimrose―Ariane wasn’t the first dead girl.
They soon learn that all the past murders are connected to ancient fairytale curses…and that their own fates are tied to the stories, dooming the girls to brutal and gruesome endings unless they can break the cycle for good.
- Into the Bloodred Woods by Martha Brockenbrough (Sapphic YA Fantasy)
- Girls of Fate and Fury (Girls of Paper and Fire #3) by Natasha Ngan (F/F YA Fantasy)
- Briar Girls by Rebecca Kim Wells (Bisexual YA Fantasy)
- Faith: Greater Heights by Julie Murphy (Bisexual YA Superheroes)
YA Comics, Graphic Novels, and Manga
- Passport by Sophia Glock (Queer YA Graphic Memoir)
Children
Middle Grade
Candidly Cline by Kathryn Ormsbee (Sapphic Middle Grade Contemporary)
A must-read for fans of Julie Murphy and Ashley Herring Blake, this queer coming-of-age story from critically acclaimed author Kathryn Ormsbee sings with heart, warmth, and hope.
Born in Paris, Kentucky, and raised on her gram’s favorite country music, Cline Alden is a girl with big dreams and a heart full of song. When she finds out about a young musicians’ workshop a few towns over, Cline sweet-talks, saves, and maybe fibs her way into her first step toward musical stardom.
But her big dreams never prepared her for the butterflies she feels surrounded by so many other talented kids—especially Sylvie, who gives Cline the type of butterflies she’s only ever heard about in love songs.
As she learns to make music of her own, Cline begins to realize how much of herself she’s been holding back. But now, there’s a new song taking shape in her heart—if only she can find her voice and sing it.
“Empowering, affirming, and sweet as all get-out.” —Lisa Jenn Bigelow, author of Drum Roll, Please
Nonfiction
Queer as All Get Out: 10 People Who’ve Inspired Me by Shelby Criswell (Nonfiction)
This graphic novel paints a picture of the lives of 10 specific LGBTQIA people from history, framed by the personal struggles of the author to find acceptance and to carve out a meaningful life as a genderqueer person.
Each chapter focuses on a different relatively little-known historical character, presented within the context of the author’s own life.
Shelby Criswell’s art is fun and engaging and brings a comic book feel to this enlightening and important subject matter.
- Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks: 1941-1995 by Patricia Highsmith (Essays)
- Dark Tourist by Hasanthika Sirisena (Bisexual Essays)
- Destination Pride: A Little Book for the Best LGBTQ Vacations by Andrew Collins