Jae's Blog, page 6
September 5, 2024
Kiss in the rain (Sapphic Book Bingo #18)
This week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category is a swoon-worthy micro trope: Books featuring a kiss in the rain!
It could be a passionate kiss in a thunderstorm or a tender first kiss as the first raindrops start to fall.
15 sapphic books with a kiss in the rain
Below, you’ll find 15 recommended sapphic books in which the main characters share a kiss in the rain.
Fire, Water, and Rock by Alaina Erdell
A hot summer fling or true love?
When budding geologist Jessica Sterling arrives to work on her thesis while camping in Washington’s Dry Falls State Park for the summer, she shatters park ranger Clare DeVere’s hope for an uneventful season. Neither can deny their unexpected attraction, but their secrets make romance impossible.
Clare’s best friend since college, Lyn, works as one of the park’s dispatchers, and her long-standing and unrequited crush on Clare grows increasingly obsessive as Clare draws closer to Jess.
While Clare contends with Lyn’s infatuation and unwanted advances from her womanizing boss, and Jess grapples with her unexpected feelings for a woman, their fiery fling challenges them to confront their pasts.
Available at:
Beowulf for Cretins: A Love Story by Ann McMan
English professor and aspiring novelist, Grace Warner spends her days teaching four sections of “Beowulf for Cretins” to bored and disinterested students at one of New England’s “hidden ivy” colleges. Not long after she is dumped by her longtime girlfriend, Grace meets the engaging and mysterious Abbie on a cross-country flight. Sparks fly on and off the plane as the two strangers give in to one night of reckless passion with no strings attached, and no contact information exchanged.
Back home at St. Albans, the college rocks Grace’s world when it announces the appointment of a new president, the first woman in its 165-year history. Cue Abbie—and cue Grace’s collision course with a neurotic dog named Grendel, a fractious rival for tenure, and a woman called Ochre, in what very well might be Grace’s last real shot at happiness.
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Only Human by Audrey Wilson
Have you ever had a crush? Have you ever had a crush so astronomically huge you were willing to tell the person anything to make them fall in love with you? If you’re Annalise Dresden, then the answer is yes. Yes you have. And you’re in way over your head.
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Alpha’s Choice by C. A. Hall
As a fox, Lynn’s used to being blamed for the faults of others. So after losing her job and being relocated to a town she doesn’t know, she’s determined to keep her head down.
Moving in with a bunch of wolves isn’t ideal. Neither is her fox’s obsession with the she-wolf who also happens to be the head of the house.
Dova’s smart, beautiful, and nothing like the wolves Lynn remembers from her childhood. She’s also off limits, which means no ogling, daydreaming, or fantasies of any kind.
This would be a lot easier, of course, if Lynn’s fox would stop running circles around her ankles.
After moving into the best home she’s ever known, can Lynn keep her fox in line? Or is the relationship she shares with her housemates doomed from the start?
Available at:
Not My Father’s Daughter by D.J. Fronimos and Elke Lakey
Kerstin Meineke has always known she’s bisexual, and reconnecting with a former classmate and declared lesbian makes her ponder the what-ifs of her own choices. Kerstin’s adult son has moved out and her marriage is in a rut, so when her mom dies, Kerstin fulfills her last wish and travels to the US to meet her biological father.
Finally finished with veterinary college, Sara Peterson decides the next step is to find her perfect life partner. Online Sara locates a candidate who meets all her criteria, but when their in-person meeting is a disaster, she convinces herself to stick to loving animals.
It’s March 2020, and both Kerstin’s and Sara’s lives grind to a halt once COVID hits. The ever-practical Sara invites her new “sister” Kerstin to stay with the family, never mind that her mother resents Kerstin, the daughter from a previous marriage her husband failed to mention. Things quickly become tense.
Gorgeous and brilliant, Sara possesses a quirkiness which intrigues Kerstin, and she falls for Sara practically at first sight. Sara’s rational world is turned upside down when she realizes the feeling is mutual. Kerstin and Sara struggle to do the right thing, but boundaries are shattered when passion overtakes them. Too soon, Kerstin’s vacation ends and she knows their goodbye must be forever. Sensible Sara comes to the same conclusion.
But what if theirs is the once-in-a-lifetime love they both long for?
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Bliss by Fiona Zedde
Bliss Sinclair’s life of boring routine takes an electrifying turn when she meets Regina, a provocative writer who introduces her to a world bursting with sensations and flavors beyond her wildest imagination. But this newfound excitement quickly turns into poisoned lust and disappointment.
Determined to break free from Regina’s toxic hold, Sinclair embarks on a journey to Jamaica, her birthplace, seeking solace in the tropical sun and in the family she never knew. But she soon discovers that the island holds both ghosts from her past and strangers who will challenge everything she’s known about life and love.
From steamy hidden grottos to gritty streets where danger lurks around every corner, Sinclair must fight for the love and satisfaction she deserves. Here, on this island of paradise and peril, will she finally discover what she’s been searching for all along?
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Love, Lorena by Ivy L. James
Lorena García Fernández has built her matchmaking company, “Love, Lorena,” from the ground up, but her parents refuse to acknowledge the business as legitimate. Hoping to impress them, she travels to Ìovoria to find Crown Prince Callum a match. However, when Callum unexpectedly abdicates, his wild sister, Rosamund, becomes the crown princess and Lorena’s new client.
Lorena knows “Rowdy Rosamund” from the news headlines, but as she helps the princess, she learns there’s more to Rose than her public persona. The two women grow closer with each date Lorena sets up for the crown princess, and Lorena finds herself falling for Rose.
With only a month to find the perfect match, each failure increases the pressure to succeed. How will Lorena choose between her duty and her heart?
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One Degree of Separation by Karin Kallmaker
Big city girl in a small town—Liddy Peel has culture shock. Marian Pardoo, Reference Librarian for the Iowa City Public Library, would be happy if the woman she’s loved for years wasn’t already married. Annoyed by the thoughtless out-of-town Liddy, she isn’t prepared for the seething passion that erupts when Liddy careens into her meticulously controlled life.
Liddy has run two thousand miles from a devastating love affair. Now the idea of spending the sweltering summer watching the corn grow is driving her mad. Finding herself lusting after Marian the Librarian seems like yet another cosmic jest at her hopeless love life. The only thing that keeps her sane is the coffee.
In a town where everybody knows your name, the names of your exes, pets, and your third grade teacher, Marian is thankful that she and Liddy at least don’t have an ex-girlfriend in common.
One degree of separation is too close for comfort.
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The Heart Wants by Krystina Rivers
Sydney meets Reagan in an Italian café when Reagan helps her order. Instant best friends, they spend an idyllic fall sightseeing until Sydney’s semester abroad comes to an end and she returns to the States. Reagan’s a young Army second lieutenant living under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and must stay behind and complete her assignment. But their final night together—complete with a first kiss—lives on in Sydney’s mind.
Over the next fifteen years, Reagan and Sydney ricochet in and out of each other’s lives, with each parting leaving deeper longings and scars than the last. When DADT is repealed and they both end up in Washington, DC, it’s a chance for Reagan to finally win the heart of the woman she has always loved, if only the Army didn’t threaten to send them to opposite sides of the world once again.
An epic love story that traverses the complexities of duty, loyalty, and sacrifice across the decades, Sydney and Reagan know what their hearts want, but love keeps slipping through their fingers.
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Appalachian Awakening by Nance Sparks
Facing yet another failed relationship and a full-blown identity crisis after losing her job in a corporate merger, unemployed executive Amber Shaw realizes she hasn’t been happy in a long time. Who is she if not a CEO, and if everything she’s worked for hasn’t made her happy, what will? Inspired after learning about the Appalachian Trail, Amber sets off in hopes of figuring it all out.
Leslie Brown lives life on her own terms with nothing to tie her down. She’s an experienced hiker and has one final trail left on her bucket list, the Appalachian Trail. Only problem, all her friends have settled down and started lives that don’t allow for seven months away from responsibilities. She’s out there alone.
Amber and Leslie assume they are polar opposites based on their first impressions of each other, but the more their paths cross, the more this hike of a lifetime begins to look like a love of a lifetime.
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A Place Somewhere by RJ Samuel
How far would you go? Would you lie to protect the innocent?
Alex Hart risked everything to be with her online girlfriend of two years and moved from Ireland to America. But the unthinkable happened and she is emotionally and financially ruined. Devastated, she turns her anger and betrayal into a mission to root out those who deceive the innocent online.
When a mother pleads for Alex to protect her daughter from an online predator in Ireland, Alex must become what she hates.
How far will she go before losing herself in her own web of deception?
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Love By Design by S.W. Andersen
Life has a funny way of revealing harsh truths.
Cassie Carl believes she has it all. On the cusp of achieving her professional goals and soon to marry the man of her dreams—the handsome, kind and loving Stefan Van Allen—it seems she’s found the life every woman dreams of.
What else could a girl want?
Peyton Kingston is a beautiful, talented interior designer on the rise, whose sole focus is building her business. She loves what she does and has little time or patience for relationships. She’s happy with her life.
What else could a girl need?
When Cassie’s wealthy fiancé brings Peyton in to do a renovation on their home before the big engagement party, sparks fly, leaving both Cassie and Peyton to question everything they thought they already had.
What happens when the thin veil of perfection becomes riddled with holes?
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Romancing the Gorgon by Tallie Rose
Witch Lettie Katz’s life plans always included running the inn her grandmother co-owned in their hometown of Lilac Lake. But after her grandmother died, with no mention of bequeathing her half to anyone Lettie was left floundering. Months later, when she’s called to visit the town lawyer’s office she’s shocked to find her gorgon ex-girlfriend Chandler Hart waiting.
Lettie hasn’t seen Chandler in years and that’s just fine by both of them. In fact, Chandler is the reason Lettie no longer uses her magic. Their explosive teenage relationship broke Lettie’s heart, blew up town square—literally—and sent Chandler running. But Chandler is back, and worst of all her grandmother, the inn’s other owner, has left them both half, with one stipulation—neither woman can sell their portion for at least six months.
As old feelings resurface, can they find a way to work together or will the Stone and Sorcery Lodge be ruined before the next tourist season?
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The Order by TJ O’Shea
A smile, a dance, some flirtatious banter—and witty heiress Luciana Piccolo was swept off her feet. Literally.
When a mysterious, gorgeous woman whisks her onto the dance floor at her father’s masquerade ball, Lucy is thrilled to break the shackles of her privileged but purposeless life. But when the same woman kidnaps her and whisks her to the hideout of the rebels fighting to topple the regime she’s set to inherit, Lucy isn’t thrilled to be actually shackled as a prisoner. She is forced to accompany her abductor—a laconic, rigid assassin named Taylor—across the war-torn regions of the former United States as Taylor carries out perilous assassinations and leads the growing rebel army.
Relying on each other to stay alive, the antagonistic spark between Lucy and Taylor smolders into an ardent flame. Secrets unravel and the stakes get fatally higher, as the battle between new love and old loyalty may prove more dangerous than the war they’re trying to survive.
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Enchanted Autumn by Ursula Klein
When Dr. Elizabeth Cowrie shows up in Salem, Massachusetts, to study the witch trials, Hazel and her best friend, Roxy, are both instantly attracted to the workaholic professor. Roxy snags a date with Elizabeth first, but when their chemistry fizzles out, Hazel sees an opportunity to pursue Elizabeth herself—until she realizes Elizabeth is avowedly anti-magic.
That’s definitely a problem since Hazel is a bona fide witch: rides a broom, has a black cat, brews love potions, lives in a haunted house, and has a vampire ex-girlfriend. Roxy is the only person who knows the truth, and Hazel has gotten used to hiding who she is, but she can’t live a lie with the person she loves most. Can Hazel give up magic to make it work with Elizabeth? Or will she give up on the love of her life instead?
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Leave a comment
What book will you be reading for the “kiss in the rain” category? Are there other books that are a good fit for this category? Let us know in the comments!
The post Kiss in the rain (Sapphic Book Bingo #18) appeared first on Jae.
August 22, 2024
Butch character with a non-butch name (Hidden Gems #8)
Since earlier this week was Butch Appreciation Day, this week’s category of the Sapphic Book Bingo celebrates butch characters! For this square of the bingo card, read a sapphic book featuring a butch main character who doesn’t have a unisex name or doesn’t go by a butch nickname.
Let me point out that, of course, butch women can have any name, so any name can be a butch name. That’s the point I’m trying to make with this category. In most sapphic books, butch characters are given unisex or traditionally male names. However, real life shows us that butch women are just as likely to be named Tiffany, Cindy, or Isabella. These names reflect the diversity of butch identities, yet they’re rarely seen in fiction.
15 recommended sapphic books featuring butch characters with non-butch names
Below, you’ll find a list of 15 sapphic books featuring butch characters who don’t go by a typically butch name.
Departure from the Script by Jae
Aspiring actress Amanda Clark and photographer Michelle Osinski are two women burned by love and not looking to test the fire again. And even if they were, it certainly wouldn’t be with each other. Amanda has never been attracted to a butch woman before, and Michelle personifies the term butch.
Having just landed a role on a hot new TV show, she’s determined to focus on her career and doesn’t need any complications in her life. After a turbulent breakup with her starlet ex, Michelle swore she would never get involved with an actress again.
Another high-maintenance woman is the last thing she wants, and her first encounter with Amanda certainly makes her appear the type. But after a date that is not a date and some meddling from Amanda’s grandmother, they both begin to wonder if it’s not time for a departure from their usual dating scripts.
Available at:
Dark Horse by A. L. Brooks
Sometimes, going back is the only way forward. Punished for a crime she did not commit, Sadie is sent away to live with her grandmother in Sydney, Australia. Now, several years later, Sadie’s an aloof, lone wolf, café-manager who loves only her best friend, her gran, and her motorbike. Returning home to see her dying mother, she’s forced to face her past.
In the midst of family turmoil, she connects with the most unlikely of people. Holly, a beautiful hotel desk clerk, is Sadie’s polar opposite and a beacon of warmth and light amidst Sadie’s darkness.
It’s a lot to take in. Between Sadie’s growing love and old family lies, can she build a new, bright future with Holly?
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Face the Music by Aimée
England, 2011. Phyllida Reynart has come back from Afghanistan wounded and bitter, having lost both her army career and the love of her life. Through a friend, she gets an audition for the local orchestra, directed by Trishia Knight, a woman who has fought hard to get where she is. Both women are strong-willed, and serious about their work – both women struggle to keep their lives together and neither of them is looking for love. However, it is usually to be found in the most unexpected places.
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Enthralled by Her by Chelsea M. Cameron
Things might be going well enough, but I couldn’t see much to look forward to. Sure, I somehow had a thriving business repairing and rebinding books, and my parents had gifted me their vacation house after my apartment was turned into a co-op. Still, there wasn’t a whole lot of action and excitement in little Arrowbridge, Maine, but I was making the best of it, like I always did. Just me and my guinea pigs, Gomez and Morticia, taking on the world.
Then a tree falls in my yard, barely missing the house and my car. My kind neighbor recommends a local arborist, but when Shae Wentworth shows up, I don’t quite know what to make of her. Not only is she physically intimidating, with her ripped arms from her wood-chopping hobby, she’s surprisingly well-read and funny, once she opens up a little. I’m addicted to spending time with her, and it’s unsettling, to say the least. Shae has somehow unlocked something I thought I buried deep down, but I’m at a point where I can no longer ignore the way I feel.
One night, after a few too many glasses of wine at book club, she gives me a ride and I make her a wild proposition: teach me how to date women. For some reason, she agrees, and I’ve got myself an incredibly sexy sapphic dating tutor.
There’s just the small problem of me completely falling for her and wishing Shae was my girlfriend instead.
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Sealed with a Hiss by Eule Grey
Mave Kitten is ecstatic when she lands a dream job as a paranormal journalist for a local newspaper, the Echo. It’s a chance in a lifetime for a neurodivergent Witch. She’s a little nervous about the boss, leather-clad motorcyclist Lisa Blonde. But Lisa’s got a heart of gold, and Mave soon settles into her new role. There’s even an office cat to help out. Only one tiny problem remains—Lisa doesn’t believe in the paranormal. How is Mave to change her mind?
Her Little Joke
Mave and Lisa investigate a creepy sound emanating from a nearby canal. Little do they know to what depths the trail will lead: Ghosts, a haunted well, ignorance, a flapping bird. What of the woman in green? Mave’s interviews lead to some unexpected situations, and all the time, the hissing sound grows louder. The last place Mave and Lisa wish to visit is the depths of a macabre well. Heck, no. They’re just ordinary women with bills to pay. But entities are fashionably unpredictable, and ghost whisperers can’t choose when to answer a supernatural SOS. When the darkness closes in, Mave is glad of Lisa’s winning formula of strength and softness.
Swamp Woman
Although Mave loves her Sunday dates with Lisa, she wishes the outings would lead to something more intimate. When a swamp monster at Ladybower Reservoir goes AWOL and a researcher disappears, it’s a brilliant opportunity for Mave and Lisa to get better acquainted and stretch their investigative skills. Mave leaves no gravestone unturned. Phantom aircraft, a missing scientist, abandoned lizard tails, tussles in the bushes: all pathways lead to one heated conclusion—it’s time to tell Lisa how she feels.
Kitten and Blonde set forth on Lisa’s motorbike armed with packed lunches and crucial questions. Why is a mysterious noise coming from the well? What’s causing the toxic chemicals at Ladybower Reservoir? Where’s the nearest pub? Maybe the most crucial question of all is whether Lisa Blonde will ever believe in the supernatural.
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Ice Quake by Tiffany E. Taylor
43-year-old Lenora Wexler is the conservative CEO of The Wexler-Grahmme Group in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, a cold—yet kind—and guarded butch with a painful past. Because of the damaging trauma she has suffered at her ex-wife’s hands, she’s sworn she will never, EVER get involved with another woman again. Femmes are too catty, too selfish, and too unkind—in her experience—and they aren’t worth the risk to her heart.
40-year-old Willow St. James is the new business analyst and developer at Wexler-Grahmme, a brilliant, quirky femme with a fondness for Chuck Taylor sneakers and eclectic clothing. Her unconventional life includes a kooky nonbinary barista roommate with lavender hair named Rebel, a pet chinchilla named Drip, and a tabby cat with a shoelace fascination named Glitch. Len’s best friend and business partner, Beck Grahmme—who is also the chief operating officer of Wexler-Grahmme and Willow’s new boss—is convinced Len only needs to spend a little bit of time with Willow and Rebel in “Chaos Central” to see that not all femmes are the same.
When a sneaky corporate thief raises their ugly head in an embezzlement scheme, Willow draws upon her formidable analysis skills to help Len and Beck identify and capture the thief. But Willow’s heart has been breaking—because she’s fallen in love with the handsome CEO, who is encased in such a thick layer of ice, Willow despairs of ever getting through to her.
Until, of course, an ice quake strikes and turns all of their worlds completely upside down. Oh, the things that make you go Boom.
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When It Feels Right by Tagan Shepard
Marlene Diggs has her whole life figured out and a ten-year plan for success. You know what’s not on that plan? A one-night stand with a woman who makes her question everything. How could she have spent thirty years not knowing she’s a lesbian? Her first lesbian relationship ends in disaster and leaves her even more confused than before. Of course, the lingering crush on a certain bartender doesn’t help.
Abby McCallister has always felt good in her own skin. It’s everyone else who has a problem. When yet another girlfriend labels her “too much,” another relationship bites the dust, and she winds up sleeping on the couch in her art studio. A cute regular at the bar offers up her spare room in exchange for some tips on fitting into the gay scene, and Abby jumps at the chance. What’s the worst that could happen?
Marlene and Abby know that falling for your roommate is the worst cliché ever, and it’s absolutely not going to happen to them. But resisting their feelings is hard to do when being together feels so right.
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Wicked Fem by Edie Marr
I’ve always fantasised about a woman like her.
Can I handle the reality?
I’m just your average recently-heartbroken scruffy butch. When I bump into my dream woman in the supermarket I’m so overwhelmed I can barely speak to her. She’s out of my league. So how come I’m putting so much effort into tracking her down.
She’s a beautiful polished dominant fem. She’s never been with a woman before. And I’ve never ever been with a woman like her. It can’t possibly work. Can it?
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A Crime of Secrets by Ann Aptaker
New York City, 1899—a city on the cusp of a new century. A city growing taller, faster, a city of new inventions, new ideas—and old dangers on its shadowy streets where crime, misery, and murder lurk.
When Pauline Godfrey, a young woman embodying the coming modern age, is viciously murdered, her throat cut, private inquiry agents Finola “Fin” Donner and Devorah Longstreet must navigate a world of violence and passion, lust and betrayal, where duty is twisted into bitter obedience and love is soiled.
Fin, a tough survivor of the dockside slums, and her beloved companion, the elegant, intellectual socialite Devorah, probe deep into the festering secrets of a family, the rot and corruption of the police department, and the sinister world of the city’s thieves, whores, and thugs to find the killer.
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Music from Stone by Brenda Murphy
Celebrated concert pianist Nüwa Zhou had it all. Until she didn’t. Forced out of the closet while testifying at the kidnapping and murder trial of her obsessive former assistant turned stalker, she retires from the high-pressure world of performing to recover at her parents’ estate.
Stone mason, and frustrated sculptor Julia Johnson, spends her days stone building walls and patios while dreaming of quitting her day job.
After a chance encounter with Julia leads to more, Nüwa imagines a life with Julia. When her stalker returns, determined to kidnap Nüwa and end anyone who stands in his way, Nüwa will do whatever it takes to keep Julia safe, but will it be enough?
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Loser of the Year by Carrie Byrd
Mattie Belman’s life has gone from dismal to desperate. After the loss of her acting career, her marriage, and her usual optimism, she’s back home teaching high school theater. Maybe it’ll be a fresh start.
St. Rita’s arrogant soccer coach Jillian Reed sees Mattie’s musical as an outrageous distraction for her champion players. When Jillian declares war, Mattie is far too stubborn to back down.
But as Mattie discovers there might be more to Jillian than spectacle, fire, and ego, she gets dangerously close to her iron-willed colleague. Can she avoid temptation? Or will the growing flame in Jillian’s dark eyes ignite them both?
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Vicarious by Chloe Spencer
After suffering a savage assault in a bathroom as a girl, Gertie meets the man of her dreams. Her trauma soon vanishes as they begin to build a life together. However, with the sudden death of her beloved Jack, and the return of her school bully—Bea—years later, Gertie’s long-buried trauma bubbles to the surface. All the think is one thing: Revenge.
Inserting herself into Bea’s life, nobody is safe—not her parents, not her children. Hell, not even the PTA members of her daughter’s high school. Starting a sordid romance with Bea in a bid to destroy her life from the inside out, Gertie soon learns revenge is messier than she thought.
But a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.
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These Thin Lines by Milena McKay
In the heart of Paris, Chiara Conti is a Queen trapped in an Ivory Tower of haute couture, fortune and lovelessness. Lonely and dejected, she’s longing for inspiration, for direction, for understanding.
When Vi Courtenay falls at her feet, losing her shoe like a veritable Cinderella, events are set in motion that will unravel their carefully fashioned lives.
With everything tainted, will the thin lines they rend ever be mended?
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Love or Hate by Rita Potter
In a world full of divisiveness, what would it be like to walk in someone else’s shoes?
Two worlds collide when Rain Hargrove, a progressive lesbian, and Ivy Nash, a conservative Christian, clash at a political rally. Normally, that would be the end of the story, but it’s just the beginning when they’re approached by an old woman. Her bizarre chanting about love and hate disrupts their argument, and the two go their separate ways, pushing the incident from their minds.
That is, until, without warning, they find themselves in each other’s bodies. Then they’re suddenly switched back. This can’t be real…can it? Did the old woman have something to do with this? The unpredictable body swaps continue, sometimes with hilarious consequences.
While Rain and Ivy search for a way to stop these unsettling events, they’re forced to see the world through each other’s eyes. As the unlikely friendship develops, they must face some of their deeply held beliefs and prejudices.
Is it possible to not only accept their differences, but also embrace them? If so, could the bond they’ve developed lead to something deeper?
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Let Love Be Enough by Robyn Nyx
When a killer sets her sights on her target, is there any stopping her?
Award-winning journalist Madison Ford is taking a well-deserved break from covering foreign wars. That break is cut short when she receives a mysterious package, full of incriminating information on an organ trafficking ring. When she’s asked to do an interview with actress and humanitarian, Elodie Fontaine, it seems like a welcome distraction. She has no idea how distracting Elodie will become.
Elodie Fontaine is in demand. She chooses the movies she wants to work on and the women she wants in her bed. Humanitarian work takes up the rest of her time. Love isn’t an option. Madison walks into her life and turns it upside down and inside out. Elodie wants to see where their instant connection might lead, but Madison just wants to be friends.
When Madison’s work puts her life in danger, will Elodie’s love be strong enough to save her? Or will they lose everything?
Available at:
Leave a comment
What book will you be reading for the “butch character with a non-butch name” category? Are there other books that are a good fit for this category? Let us know in the comments!
The post appeared first on Jae.
August 15, 2024
Sapphic found family books (Sapphic Book Bingo #17)
This week’s Sapphic Book Bingo topic, found family, has always been a strong theme in many sapphic books.
“Found family” means that the main characters have formed a family of choice with people they aren’t related to. It can be a friend group, neighbors who support each other, a tight-knit community, or a blended family.
Maybe it’s because LGBTQ+ people are sometimes estranged from their families or have unsupportive families, but for many of us, friends and found family play an important role in our lives, and that’s reflected in our books.
15 sapphic found family books
Below, you’ll find 15 recommended sapphic books with a “found family” theme.
Playing Catch-Up by Zoey Lennox
Twenty-three-year-old Alexis Lenz’s life is a mess: she hates her job, has lost touch with most of her friends, and her love life is non-existent.
When she meets LGBTQ youth counsellor Ramie Ramirez at a dinner party, sparks fly. But Ramie is still putting herself back together after an acrimonious split from her long-term girlfriend and is only looking for something casual. If living with the repercussions of her ex’s lies has taught her one thing, it’s to keep her heart locked up tight.
As the two women begin to date, Alexis finds herself in a predicament. She’s never dated a woman before and is afraid Ramie will dump her sorry arse once she finds out.
What’s a girl to do? A little white lie can’t hurt, can it? It’s not like they’re going to do something stupid like fall in love…
Available at:
Women of the Post by Joshunda Sanders
1944, New York City. Judy Washington is tired of having to work at the Bronx Slave Market, cleaning white women’s houses for next to nothing. She dreams of a bigger life, but with her husband fighting overseas, it’s up to her and her mother to earn enough for food and rent. When she’s recruited to join the Women’s Army Corps—offering a steady paycheck and the chance to see the world—Judy jumps at the opportunity.
During training, Judy becomes fast friends with the other women in her unit—Stacy, Bernadette and Mary Alyce—who all come from different cities and circumstances. Under Second Officer Charity Adams’s leadership, they receive orders to sort over one million pieces of mail in England, becoming the only unit of Black women to serve overseas during WWII.
The women work diligently, knowing that they’re reuniting soldiers with their loved ones through their letters. However, their work becomes personal when Mary Alyce discovers a backlogged letter addressed to Judy. Told through the alternating perspectives of Judy, Charity and Mary Alyce, Women of the Post is an unforgettable story of perseverance, female friendship and self-discovery.
Available at:
Jericho by Ann McMan
Librarian Syd Murphy flees the carnage of a failed marriage by accepting an eighteen-month position in Jericho, a small town in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia. Her plans to hide out and heal her wounds fall by the wayside as she gets drawn into the daily lives of the quirky locals. When Syd gets a flat tire and is rescued by the town physician, Maddie Stevenson, the two women form a fast friendship—but almost immediately begin struggling with a mutual attraction. And, if that’s not enough, Syd is straight and going through a divorce—and Maddie somehow forgets to mention her sexual orientation to her new best friend. Almost everyone who crosses their paths believes it’s only a matter of time until they figure it out, but sometimes, it takes a while to see the obvious. Together, Syd and Maddie learn that life and love can have as many twists and turns as a winding mountain road.
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Dangerous Distraction by Yadira Douglas
As a sniper for the Strategic Response Team, Victoria “Viper” Perry doesn’t get close to people. Not even in her private life. Let down time and again, she has given up on finding the perfect partner, but deep down lies a heart yearning to be understood.
She’s not the only one who keeps others away. Ever since Evelyn’s father died abruptly, she hasn’t been able to connect with people. Distancing herself from serious relationships to avoid another heartbreak, she has all but forgotten what it’s like to love and be loved.
When fate and fleeing gunmen bring the elite cop into lonely Evelyn’s apartment, the two clash in an explosion of pent-up frustrations. Viper lets her guard down for the first time in her career, and she almost pays for it with her life. But in the chaos that follows, the reckless blonde proves to be more than just a dangerous distraction.
Can Victoria finally allow herself to be vulnerable? Or will her indulgence in her deepest desires tear down everything she has fought for?
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Is She Lying? by Frances Lucas
Nine months after solving the mysterious death of a classmate, Virginia Eaton and Katie McRanes are looking forward to spending their senior year together. The school year has barely started when a friend’s ex-boyfriend shows up to make trouble.
And someone dies.
As the girls investigate the murder of a member of their tight knit circle, their differing suspicions about who’s responsible put them at odds, jeopardizing their newly rekindled romance. It’s clear someone they care about may be lying, and time is running out. Can they stop a new killer before others die?
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Violet Moon by Mel E. Lemon
Seraphine’s days are filled with fresh coffee, fruit tarts, and doing her best to be the Beta her pack needs. But when Sera discovers she has feelings for Parisa, her best friend and pack Alpha, she decides to bury those feelings for the sake of the pack. (After all, what’s a little secret pining between friends?) Strong feelings can’t stay buried forever, though, and when they cause her to act rashly, Sera risks losing everything, but could gain so much more.
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The Forever and The Now by KJ
Bron McIntyre, forty-two, has it all together. Terrific job. Loving family. No desperate need for a girlfriend but would be interested if one came along. Bron McIntyre is Teflon.
Kate Agostino, forty-eight, is not Teflon. Yes, she has a terrific job. But a loving family? Not really. And her personal life is rapidly disintegrating and turning into dust.
When her orange smoothie explodes all over her business suit while she’s on her afternoon walk, Kate simply shakes her head in resignation.
Bron, having witnessed the smoothie eruption, races to help, and suddenly her life takes an unexpected turn.
Falling in love is like watching the grandest sunset on the calmest ocean where the tiniest ripples wear silver sparkles as their hats. Kate and Bron find that sunset on that ocean with those ripples of love, but what happens when you take that love for granted? What happens when your person disappears? The answers are hard to hear and Bron chooses not to listen.
After a relationship break, a family intervention, and conversations that rip apart seams, Bron and Kate eventually find themselves, each other, and their now. And what they discover is that love is the large and the deliberate, and the simple and the small.
So when tragedy strikes, they call on its strength because, when you think about it, love can live on in the forever, particularly if it lives courageously in the now.
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No Strings by Lucy Bexley
Fun is the one thing Elsie Webb takes seriously. Though she’d be having a lot more of it if Haelstrom Media paid her enough to actually get out of debt. She’s determined to hold out on contract negotiations for her kids’ television show Fangley Heights until she gets what she deserves. There’s only one problem, the head of the network just died and left her future more uncertain than ever.
Forty-eight hours and one funeral–that’s all Jones Haelstrom has to get through before she can return to her life in LA that’s as ordered and sparse as an IKEA showroom. When she steps in as CEO of her father’s media company, Elsie Webb is her first problem to deal with. Elsie ends up challenging Jones in ways she never could have predicted, starting with an attraction neither can avoid.
As their attraction teeters on the edge of something more both agree to keep it casual. A no-strings agreement and disclosure to HR should be enough to keep things between Jones and Elsie from getting tangled, right?
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For the Love of Charley by Patty Schramm
Ten years ago, Charley Townsend lost her wife and has never truly moved on from that day. Most of her time is consumed by her work as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant in Whitehorse. She has little time for anything else; especially dating. Jada Deveraux came to the Yukon because it was as far from Ontario as she could get without leaving Canada. What she never expected, was the prospect of falling in love. Jada and Charley meet under stressful circumstances, but Jada is fun loving and hopeful that she can break through the walls Charley has built up over the years. But is Charley ready to take the chance on love again? Will Jada be able to win Charley’s love?
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Home: The First Nillionaires Club by K’Anne Meinel
Home; such a beautiful word, but not something everyone wants, needs, or desires. For Taylor and Bree Moore, having their own home was the ultimate plan. They scrimped and saved for years, and now they are going to have to work even harder than they could have ever imagined to achieve it.
They might have had their dream home years earlier if life hadn’t gotten in the way. Taylor and Bree Moore aren’t poor, but they are bursting at the seams in the apartment they rent. With four children they first fostered and then adopted, the three-bedroom apartment isn’t enough to call home anymore.
Friends and family all chip in with their advice, support, and opinions, wanted or not, as these two make their new place home.
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The Birdwatchers by Louise Vetroff
In the mid-19th-century United States, fate brings together three people from Louisiana: a birdwatcher, a runaway wife, and a little girl, and leads them to a wagon train from Texas to California.
Three different characters with three distinct reasons to leave their homes have something that unites them — the dream of a better future.
Will they struggle to overcome their challenges alone or receive guidance from unexpected places so they may achieve their collective dream?
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Venus’s Power by Reese Quinn
Shane has been looking for love in all the wrong places because the woman who makes her skin tingle lives just a few miles from her.
Shane’s work allows her to visit many places, but it’s her love for horses that brings her face to face with the woman of her dreams–shy and sweet Miller.
Too bad that Miller’s heart is guarded with reinforced walls, and she doesn’t want to be more than friends.
As a hired assassin, Shane needs to keep her work a secret, which also doesn’t help her score points with her crush. Or the fact that she’s pregnant and plans to be a single mom.
When a twist of fate brings Miller and Shane closer than ever, will Miller allow Shane and her children to be her new family?
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A Sweet Sting Of Salt by Rose Sutherland
When a sharp cry wakes Jean in the middle of the night during a terrible tempest, she’s convinced it must have been a dream. But when the cry comes again, Jean ventures outside and is shocked by what she discovers—a young woman in labor, drenched to the bone in the bitter cold and able to speak barely a word of English.
Although Jean is the only midwife for miles around, she’s at a loss for who this woman is or where she’s from; Jean can only assume that she must be the new wife of the neighbor up the road, Tobias. And when Tobias does indeed arrive at her cabin in search of his wife, Muirin, Jean’s questions continue to multiply. Why has he kept his wife’s pregnancy a secret? And why does Muirin’s open demeanor change completely the moment she’s in his presence?
Though Jean learned long ago that she should stay out of other people’s business, her growing concern—and growing feelings—for Muirin mean that she can’t simply set her worries aside. But when the answers she finds are more harrowing than she ever could have imagined, she fears she may have endangered herself, Muirin, and the baby. Will she be able to put things right and save the woman she loves before it’s too late, or will someone have to pay for Jean’s actions with their life?
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Lost in Love by Emily Banting
Historical tour guide Anna Walker is determined to make a good impression on her new bosses, but juggling a full-time job with caring for her ailing father is putting her own health – and potentially his – at risk.
When she meets Dr Katherine Atkinson, a charming yet intimidating new arrival to the village, Anna is infuriated by the doctor’s attempts to convince her that her father needs professional, full-time care. She’s even more frustrated by her growing attraction to the classy, wealthy doctor.
Anna’s determination to prove she can cope forces Katherine to divulge a painful event from her past that still haunts her, hopeful it will make Anna see sense before it’s too late.
With Katherine’s heart lost to the past and Anna’s overwhelmed in the present, can the two women help each other overcome their struggles and move forward? Will a curtain-twitching busy body curtail any blossoming attraction before it even has a chance to bloom?
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The Number 94 Project by Cheyenne Blue
When handywoman Jorgie’s uncle leaves her an old house in Melbourne, it’s a dream come true. Sure, 94 Gaylord Street is falling apart, and she has to deal with her uncle Bruce’s eccentric friends thanks to his unusual Will.
But that’s okay. She’ll fire up her power tools and turn the dilapidated terrace house into a desirable inner-city pad. Then she’ll sell up and head home to the country.
Jorgie hasn’t counted on falling for cute neighbour Marta, who’s found her heart-home among the tight queer-community of Gaylord Street. Between mugs of too-strong tea and Jorgie’s lack of a working shower, the two forge a surprising connection.
But what happens when the renovation’s complete? Can Jorgie really just toss aside her tool belt and saunter away?
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Leave a comment
What book will you be reading for the “sapphic found family books” category? Are there other books that are a good fit for this category? Let us know in the comments!
The post Sapphic found family books (Sapphic Book Bingo #17) appeared first on Jae.
August 1, 2024
Books about sporty sapphics (Sapphic Book Bingo #16)
This week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category features sporty sapphics!
For this square of the bingo card, read a sapphic book with a main character who’s either a professional athlete or loves sports as a hobby. Below, you’ll find books about a soccer coach, a basketball player, a tennis player, a runner, a fitness trainer, a golfer, a rock climber, a martial arts champion, a soccer player, a swimmer, an Olympic fencer, a ski instructor, and a baseball player, but, of course, you can pick a book featuring any other sport too.
15 sapphic books featuring sporty sapphics
Below, you’ll find 15 recommended sapphic books with a main character who’s a sporty sapphic a.k.a. an athlete.
Loser of the Year by Carrie Byrd
An enemies-to-lovers, opposites attract lesbian romance about daring to take a risk, even if it burns you.
Mattie Belman’s life has gone from dismal to desperate. After the loss of her acting career, her marriage, and her usual optimism, she’s back home teaching high school theater. Maybe it’ll be a fresh start.
St. Rita’s arrogant soccer coach Jillian Reed sees Mattie’s musical as an outrageous distraction for her champion players. When Jillian declares war, Mattie is far too stubborn to back down.
But as Mattie discovers there might be more to Jillian than spectacle, fire, and ego, she gets dangerously close to her iron-willed colleague. Can she avoid temptation? Or will the growing flame in Jillian’s dark eyes ignite them both?
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June and Inobe’s Dating Game by Jillian Amena
Star athlete and captain of the basketball team, June Carter has never been in love- except for her love for basketball. That is until she falls head over-heel at a cheerleader named Inobe Nosa. Ever since at that day setting eyes on her, June cannot contain her strong feelings for the cute cheerleader with an obsession for boba tea. But the fear of putting her heart out there and her past haunting her keeps June away.
That is until June receives a text from an on online troll accusing her of queer-baiting ever since she was found dancing intimately with a male friend during a college party. To prove people wrong about her, June sets out on a mission to ask out the cutest cheerleader in her campus. And that girl happens to be Inobe. However, that may not be easy dealing with others who try to tear them apart for their new found love.
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Break Point by Yolanda Wallace
Germany’s Meike von Bismarck is rich, famous, and the top-ranked amateur female tennis player in the world. She seems to have it all, but the Nazis want more. Can Meike deliver the victories Adolf Hitler requires on court while keeping her soul intact off it?
Brash American Helen Wheeler has reached the upper echelons of women’s tennis, but her fiery temper and headline-grabbing social life have prevented her from being accepted by the genteel sport’s fans. When a shadowy government agent presents Helen with compromising photographs of her with Meike von Bismarck, her one-time doubles partner and former lover, will Helen allow her career to be derailed by an inevitable morals charge or will she agree to spy on the woman she once loved?
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For the Long Run by Cheyenne Blue
A koala ruined her life. Well, that’s how elite athlete Shan Metz sees it.
When an idiot charity runner in a koala suit trips Shan during a community fun run, her knee blows out, destroying her dream of making the Australian Commonwealth Games team. Recovering from knee surgery will be bad enough, but living on her building’s fourth floor will make it a nightmare.
Consultant Lizzie Carras, aka the dream-wrecking koala, does guilt like a pro. The only decent thing to do is offer Shan her spare bedroom during recovery. Their incompatible lifestyles don’t help matters. Neither does Shan’s training partner, the haughty and possessive Celia. But they’ll muddle through until Shan’s knee has healed enough to get out of Lizzie’s life.
Because it’s not like Shan would ever miss a dream-wrecking koala or anything. Right?
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All the Wrong Places by Karin Kallmaker
Brandy Monsoon is looking for love. Since there’s never a shortage of casual playmates at the tropical resort where she works as a fitness trainer, most of the time she gets it, too. If Brandy tires of the perpetually curious but primarily straight women, there’s her best friend Tess for a friendly encounter – safe, with no strings. After all, they’re just buddies.
When an all-lesbian tour group arrives for a week, Brandy is sure she’ll be in paradise on earth. The guests include lesbian celebrity comic Celine Griffin, who has an obvious interest in an after-dinner Brandy. Celine and Brandy do find explosive pleasure together — so why does Brandy feel as if that’s no longer enough for happiness?
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Calculated Risk by Katherine Rupley
Ex-US national rock climber Leslie McAllister finally has her life right where she wants it. When she’s asked to accept a new position in Boston, she must decide whether to stay in her comfort zone or take a leap and trust she’s anchored herself well enough to not fall.
Stuntwoman CJ Broadmore has big dreams and a big problem. She needs to learn to climb, and fast, if she wants to do stunt work on a new movie. Enter Leslie McAllister, who not only sparks an attraction, but who may be CJ’s ticket to success.
CJ and Leslie must calculate each step, weigh the risks, and work through their fears as they reach for the top—and toward each other.
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The Long Shot by A. L. Brooks
Talented golfer Morgan Spencer has never won a major but it’s so close she can taste it—no thanks to her sexist father, a golfing legend who won’t even give her the time of day.
Television producer Adrienne Wyatt has thrown herself into her career after her lover left her a year ago. She has a brilliant new plan: a documentary featuring Morgan’s rise and rise, capitalizing on the young woman’s star appeal.
The main problem is that the reserved golfer treats Adrienne’s plan like an invasion of privacy. The other issue is her growing feelings for the irritatingly attractive woman—an unprofessional lapse that would get her ridiculed by her peers if anyone found out.
When things come to a chaotic head, as fierce desires, risked careers, age differences, and dreams all come into play, what will win?
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Can’t Fight Love by KC Luck
Alexa Knight has one more battle before she retires as an undefeated mixed martial arts champion. When ESPN wants to film her preparation for the final match, she reluctantly agrees. All she cares about is remaining the best.
Kara Roberts is a documentary filmmaker who needs a few more dollars to finish the most important project of her life. Desperate, she agrees to work on the crew filming the final weeks before Alexa Knight’s last fight. All she cares about is making her movie.
When their two worlds collide, sparks fly as neither is willing to yield to the other’s desires. All they agree on is nothing can be allowed to distract them from what they want to accomplish, especially each other. But the women have forgotten one important thing when it comes to plans… you can’t fight love.
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Onside Play by Liz Rain
Knockabout Australian Keeley McGee is living her childhood dream of playing soccer at the World Cup. The only thing that could kill her focus is coming up against the cool and dispassionate US team’s star striker.
Beautiful, brilliant Christine Delacourt was the college girlfriend who dumped Keeley out of the blue years before.
What will it be like reuniting under the stadium lights, especially since they know the other’s game—and each other—so intimately?
Despite a strict “no distractions” rule from her coach, Keeley finds herself drawn to Christine in a way that feels almost dangerous. Will Keeley be able to rekindle what she once shared with her now on-field enemy with the eyes of the world on them? Dare she even try?
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Underwater Vibes by Mickey Brent
Hélène Dupont, a scientific translator in Brussels, Belgium, cherishes two things: flowers and her cat. She writes bad poetry to help her survive her painful existence with her husband, until she is forced to undergo a radical lifestyle change. Sylvie Routard, a young Greek photographer, enters Hélène’s world as her new private swim coach. During their daily lessons, Hélène’s admiration toward Sylvie turns to attraction. As unsettling feelings hijack Hélène’s mind and body, daydreams featuring Sylvie enter her world—even her poems. While the two athletes increasingly feel underwater vibes in the pool, Hélène questions her relationship at home, and everything else in life.
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En Garde by MJ Duncan
After seven years as Nina Devereaux’s executive assistant, Serena Bowers is finally getting her shot at her dream: producing shows for The Royal Ballet. The problem is her promotion depends entirely on the success of Illyria, Nina’s latest original ballet, and that means working closely with the Honorable Rowan Alexander—Olympic fencer and Serena’s arch-nemesis from University. Rowan needs the ballet to succeed for her own reasons, but working with Serena just might be a bigger challenge than defending her Olympic gold. Will they be able to push past grievances aside, or will Illyria be their downfall?
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Honeymoon for One by Rachel Bowdler
Robin Ellis has had a year she’d like to forget. She’s tired, overworked and most definitely not ready to spend the holidays with her rowdy family in Manchester. So when she discovers she forgot to cancel her honeymoon she sees this as the perfect opportunity to get away; it’s time to relax and embrace adventure!
The last thing she expects is to clash with standoffish ski instructor Neve. But despite their rocky start these two unlikely people can’t help but fall for each other under the starry Canadian skies.
They know that holiday romances don’t last, and Robin has had her heart broken one too many times before, but can they overcome the distance between them and find a happily ever after together?
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The Touch of Her Voice by Sara Scott
My world turned to shades of grey as I squared my shoulders and turned around. The woman with the short, dark hair and the blue scarf was the only source of color in the coffee shop. I seemed to glide across the floor until I found myself standing by her table. She had been stunning from across the room; up close she dazzled.
Suddenly, there was Sophie…..
On the surface, Jensy Willett appears to have it all: good friends, a storied basketball career, a great job, and most important, the love of her life, Sophie Barnes.
But there is a secret in Jensy Willett’s past that she will not share. Not even with her beloved Sophie. That vow of silence will have far-reaching ramifications when a chance encounter results in a disastrous decision. A decision that will tear at the fabric of Jensy and Sophie’s relationship and send them spiraling out of control.
Can their relationship be saved?
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When Dreams Change by Violet Morley
As another softball season begins, Coach Lennox Clementine is juggling many balls in the air. With so many upperclassmen returning, she feels confident about Sitka High School’s chances, but only if she can manage to keep the girls in one piece. Outside of the softball field, Lennox has to keep up with the challenges of her job at the hospital. Everything would be easier if she could keep her mind from drifting to her boss, Jenna.
After separating from her husband, Jenna Macintyre is suddenly looking at the lonely blank page of her new life. She’s trying hard to keep herself from being crushed by the quiet, especially since her daughter, Wren, is finishing her senior year and is busy not only with her friends, but also softball. Left to her own devices, Jenna finds herself seeking out Lennox.
As Lennox and Jenna navigate a blossoming friendship, the two women stumble over feelings both old and new. Lennox does her best to keep her feelings hidden, but she can’t ignore the way Jenna makes her feel. All Jenna has to do is look past everything she’s known, and maybe she’ll find everything she’s been looking for.
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Heart of the Game by Rachel Spangler
Sometimes baseball is just a metaphor for life, and sometimes it works the other way around. All Sarah Duke ever cared about was baseball, and she’s finally earned her shot as a full-time sports writer. She loves the work, she loves being one of the few women to ever gain access to a man’s world, but most of all, she loves the game. When Duke meets Molly Grettano and her two sons at the ballpark, she instantly connects with the young family, but Molly isn’t sure Duke’s ready for something more. Molly wants someone softer, more feminine, and more importantly, someone steady. She and her boys have been abandoned before, and she’s vowed to never to put them in that position again. If she were ever to trust anyone, it would have to be someone fully dedicated to her and her children. Duke has a lot of heart, but neither woman is sure there’s enough room left in it for anything other than baseball.
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Love and Sportsball by Meka James
Hard work has Khadijah Upton starting her dream job as an athletic trainer for the Atlanta Cannons. Then an evening of celebratory letting loose turns into a one-night stand with a beautiful stranger. It’s a reckless, wildly sexy encounter that Khadijah intends to forget…until her first day on the job lands her face-to-face with basketball star Shae Harris again.
Shae is a major player in every sense of the word, and Khadijah doesn’t plan to be the latest in a long line of “Harris Honeys.” Personal and professional just don’t mix. But Shae, who’s all about living life to the fullest, keeps tempting Khadijah to blur the boundaries. And the more Shae reveals about herself, the harder it is for Khadijah to resist her.
In the bedroom, their tension sizzles. On the court, it’s a liability. But unless Khadijah’s willing to really let Shae in, it won’t be just the team championship on the line, but a body-and-soul connection that rewrites all the rules.
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Leave a comment
What book will you be reading for the “sporty sapphic” category? Are there other books that are a good fit for this category? Let us know in the comments!
The post Books about sporty sapphics (Sapphic Book Bingo #16) appeared first on Jae.
July 25, 2024
Sapphic books with an interracial couple (Hidden Gems #7)
For this week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category, read a sapphic book featuring a couple where the two people belong to different races or ethnicities.
Interracial couples are still underrepresented in sapphic fiction, especially books in which both main characters aren’t white, e.g., a romance between a Black character and an Asian character. If you know of any, please let us know in the comments.
15 recommended sapphic books with an interracial couple
Below, you’ll find a list of 15 sapphic books featuring interracial couples:
Forever Theirs by Anna Stone
For florist Chloe Campbell, life isn’t all sunshine and roses. Deep in debt and haunted by a past she’s desperate to leave behind, she can barely keep her little flower shop running. So when Mistress Media executive Gabrielle Hall strolls into her shop to hire her for a company event, Chloe jumps at the chance. She’s irrevocably drawn to the tantalizing woman.
And when she comes face to face with Dana Obi, Gabrielle’s girlfriend, Chloe is drawn to her too. A world-renowned fashion designer, Dana is just as enticing as Gabrielle. Both women possess one characteristic that makes Chloe weak—they like to take control. They want Chloe. And they’ll do whatever it takes to get her.
Swept into a whirlwind of romance and sensual delights beyond her wildest fantasies, Chloe can’t resist falling for her two Mistresses. As their relationship deepens, all three women wonder if the love they’ve been searching for is within their grasp, but secrets and past shadows stand in the way. Can Dana and Gabrielle do what it takes to make Chloe theirs for good?
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Chef’s Kiss by Stephanie Shea
Valentina Rosas has always known what she wants. Mostly. Sort of. At least, she does now. And what she wants is the coveted staging role at Gia, San Francisco. With four years at the top of her class in culinary school and enough tenacity to fuel the entire Mission, no one doubts she is about to land the job of her dreams—including the three-person cheer squad made up of her best friend and adorably overbearing parents.
Renowned chef Jenn Coleman is not a people person. Her rise to the top of the culinary industry stems from a cultivated blend of top-tier schooling—from her nonna—and bouts of carefully managed misanthropy. Owning and operating two Michelin starred restaurants doesn’t leave time for much else anyway. Just ask her ex.
When the new stage at her restaurant trips into her with all the grace of a baby giraffe, it’s a sure recipe for disaster. But for all of Jenn’s reserve, Valentina has twice the allure, and the chemistry between them is just… chef’s kiss.
If only Jenn wasn’t Valentina’s boss with nearly ten years between them.
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Consecrated Ground by Virginia Black
Like her father before her, Joan Matthews is a witch. For generations, their family of binder witches has protected Calvert, Oregon from vampires by strengthening the land with spellcraft. Pushing back against tradition, Joan defied her father and left town to become a war witch, one who fights the monsters hand-to-hand. But when her father dies, Joan returns to find her hometown assailed by a vampire lord’s endless attacks—and the answers lie with the one woman who chose a rival over Joan.
Leigh Phan once believed her heart was safe and her future was set. When Joan left town, Leigh’s choices led to ruin and unintended consequences. Now Leigh harbors a dark secret forcing her to live a moment-to-moment existence. Her only hope of survival lies in trusting the war witch who left her behind.
Now it’s up to Joan to fight for a town she left behind, while Leigh faces a destiny she never imagined was possible. With Calvert on the brink of total destruction, Joan and Leigh join forces and face inconvenient truths in order to save their town—and each other.
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The Honeymoon Mix-Up by Frankie Fyre
When her fiancée leaves her at the altar, Basil Jones’s picture-perfect life turns upside down, but nothing can stop her from enjoying her honeymoon—not even the luxurious island resort’s strict “couples only” policy. Basil’s vacation and her six-figure wine deal with the resort’s owners are riding on her finding a fake wife ASAP, and her sights are soon set on tall, dark, and gorgeous Caroline.
If only she knew Caroline had eyes on her first…
Caroline King never stays in one place—or in a woman’s bed—for too long. After risking her career in the past, the emotionally detached private investigator created two rules: always finish a job and never mix business with pleasure.
But when she gets roped into a false marriage with her breathtakingly beautiful target, she finds herself teetering the line of not just one but both rules.
Basil always gets what she wants—but Caroline’s professional reputation is on the line.
As Basil and Caroline’s attraction blazes like the island sun, both women struggle to fight delicious temptation while protecting their secrets—as well as their hearts—on the most romantic honeymoon island in the world.
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143 by Jade Winters
Genevieve’s parents are still reeling from the news that their daughter is gay and she will no longer be marrying Paul, the man who they believe is the ideal son-in-law. Rejected by her family and friends, Genevieve makes a new life with Rebecca, the woman she has fallen in love with and she has never been happier.
D.C Isabel Smith first encounters the couple when investigating a vicious attack on Genevieve along the embankment of the River Thames. Her investigation is hampered when Genevieve regains consciousness but cannot remember the attack, who she is or the woman she loves.
With great reluctance Rebecca has no choice but to let Genevieve return to her family and ex-fiance who will do whatever they can to steer her along the path they believe is the right one – the one that does not include Rebecca.
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Heart Stopper by RJ Samuel
Dr. PRIYA JOSEPH is an Irish-Indian coder working at a new pacemaker clinic in Galway, a small city on the west coast of Ireland that is a research and manufacturing hub within the multi-billion-dollar medical devices industry.
Priya’s life is already off the rails; in fact, the train has disappeared screaming into a ravine when, after a night out that she does not remember apart from a vague memory of being with a mysterious woman, she wakes up in an unfamiliar apartment and finds the dead body of her boss, American cardiologist and inventor, Dr Daniel Fairer III. Priya is dragged by his family into an investigation of Daniel’s death.
As they uncover secrets about the groundbreaking pacemaker technology that Daniel and his research partners developed and the wireless controllers that communicate with the implanted pacemakers, their investigation threatens a multi-million dollar enterprise. Priya learns that she has unwittingly been involved in research that could have consequences far beyond the small city where she has been trying to hide from her life. She discovers that her past is not what she thought it was and now that she actually wants a future, she may not survive long enough as she is being pursued her and her pursuers will do whatever it takes to complete their mission but time is running out.
And they have a problem. Which they need Priya to solve.
Heart Stopper is an unusual and exciting novel that breaks barriers between genres. It is a medical thriller, a murder mystery, and a love story, but it is so much more than any one of those.
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My Favorite Wife by Elizabeth Andre
When Aisha travels to Las Vegas with her fiancée Kris, all she wants is to get married. The venue is booked. The music has been chosen. The flowers are perfect. The guests are arriving.
On the casino floor Aisha runs into a long-lost college friend. They’d gotten fake “married” many years before as part of a protest for same-sex marriage rights, but those rights have been granted. That marriage is no longer fake.
Now, Aisha has 72 hours to end one marriage before she starts the life she always dreamed of. All she has to do is find a judge basking naked in a hot tub on her day off and get to the chapel on time.
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Love Where You Work by Anna Pulley
For Clare Kolikov, her work is her life. A successful HR manager with a heart of gold, Clare has no time for relationships or anything else that might distract her from climbing the career ladder at a San Francisco Bay Area matchmaking startup, W;nkdIn.
When she’s force-volunteered as an LGBTQ beta date tester at W;nkdIn, the buttoned-up Clare teeters on the edge of despair, especially when the “experiences” involve pole dancing meet-n-greets, plant healing workshops, and miming.
But Clare has her real work cut out for her when she meets Julia Dawes, the hot coworker who’s organizing her dates. Julia is a free-spirited, multiracial fashionista with “roller-blade confidence” and a Kristen Stewart haiku fan blog, whose attraction to Clare is as immediate and crippling as the debt she’s drowning in, thanks to the failed essential oils business her ex left her saddled with.
Workplace rules aim to keep Clare and Julia apart––especially after Clare becomes Julia’s boss––but their attraction only grows like an out-of-control Excel spreadsheet.
When an office rival threatens to expose their budding, secret relationship, Clare is left with an impossible choice: Give up her dream job or lose out on the girl of her dreams.
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Second Night Stand by Karelia & Fay Stetz-Waters
Prima ballet dancer Lillian Jackson is all about control—on stage and in bed. Which is precisely why she keeps her hook-ups to one night, and one night only. No strings. No phone numbers. No scones in the morning. There’s no room for mistakes, especially now that her dance company’s survival depends entirely on winning a million-dollar cash prize in one of America’s biggest reality competitions. That is, until one night with a certain curvy, blue-haired siren changes everything . . .
As burlesque dancer “Blue Lenox,” Izzy Wells is the queen of on-stage seduction. Almost no one knows that she’s close to losing everything—her theater, her home, and her troupe—unless she wins this competition. Now she’s going toe-to-toe with a gorgeous ballerina in front of the world. The chemistry between them is hot, but even more distracting are the feelings they’re starting to develop. There’s no way Lillian can fit Izzy into her life, and Izzy knows better than to fall for someone who can’t put her first. But if they can make it through the show with their hearts and dreams intact, they just might win the biggest prize of all.
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Worthy of Love by Quinn Ivins
Nadine Bayani was at the top of her game. The brilliant, ruthless lawyer was in line to be White House chief of staff—until she confessed to campaign finance crimes that cost her party the election.
Now Nadine’s out of prison, broke, hated by millions, and stuck doing a menial retail job in rural Virginia where she barely earns enough to survive.
Bella Clarke has worked at Overstock Oasis since she flunked college. She wants to go back to school, but secretly doubts she’s smart enough. At least she’s not as clueless as her boss, who just accidentally hired the woman responsible for a national scandal.
However, Nadine seems to be nothing like the crook portrayed in the media, and Bella is drawn to her troubled, standoffish co-worker. As they grow closer, Nadine introduces Bella to the delights of Filipino food and opens Bella’s eyes to her own possibilities.
Before long, about the only thing harder to make sense of than Nadine’s past is their powerful chemistry together. Is Bella really falling for a woman who caused so much harm? And even if she is, how can two such different people ever be a match?
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My Name is Marcia by Clint Chico
Coming out is only the beginning. My Name is Marcia Torres. I’m the kind of girl most adults think of as “a good kid”. My friend Charlie would say I’m also a bit of a mess. And that’s before I decided to come out as gay in front of the entire freshman class. Now I’m starting to figure out just how crazy life can be. And how cruel. How funny life can be. And how frightening. How wild. And how wonderful. My name is Marcia. This is my story. Marcia’s first year in high school is off to a rough start. She just told her best friend Charlie that she’s gay. She’s meeting new friends and making new enemies. Now she’s been targeted by a cyberbully just days before she has to give a speech in a school-wide election. Marcia’s solution? Give them a speech they’ll never forget.
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My So-Called Bloody Life by Mia Kazi
When Yashica suddenly realised she had feelings for one of her closest friends and blurts them out to her, she was totally unprepared for the storm of hate her classmates unleashed upon her and the backlash from her Asian family. Gradually she realises who her real friends are and rebuilds her relationship with her family and tries to find a way to make peace with herself and her sexuality. Yashica throws herself into her love of cricket and finally is allowed to gain some success and acceptance. Perhaps one day she could even like herself enough to believe that someone else might like her too.
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The Tree of Life by S.A. Mossman
Its been a year since Detective Sadie Park took over Daedalus Detective Agency. Stumbling back to the agency after working an all-nighter to close a case, she finds someone waiting at the door. Her former childhood friend and her first love, Kat Everett. Kat’s deadbeat father has gone missing after showing up out of the blue with a mysterious phone call asking for $85 grand and leaving cryptic messages. Sadie gets embroiled in the mystery of Kat’s missing father, a terrorist attack at the city docks, and a bag of drugs the mob is scouring the city for. At the center of all of it is Kat. Will Sadie solve the case and save the day or will the ghost of old love send her marching into trouble with no way out?
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Tempted by the Bollywood Star by Sophia Singh Sasson
Being famous was her dream…until it cost her a chance at love. Years later, will a Hollywood reunion give her the comeback she’s craving? Find out in this emotional romance by Sophia Singh Sasson.
Is she ready to risk everything for a second chance?
Bollywood star Saira Sethi fell hard and fast for producer Mia Strome…only to end their fling to protect her traditional public image. Now she’s got new opportunities in Hollywood — and Mia is the producer in charge! Their chemistry still sizzles hotter than ever — even as they clash. Can Mia and Saira overcome their past and get a cinema-worthy ending?
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Paisley’s Breakthrough by Amber Perez
When life hands you the unimaginable, you can either have a breakdown or a breakthrough.
Paisley, a successful psychologist, runs a thriving practice in downtown Knoxville. She’s worked hard to build a lucrative career and it shows, from her tailored designer wardrobe to her luxurious penthouse condo. But, when she encounters a patient who makes her face her hidden past, her carefully contrived lifestyle begins to unravel. She seems to have all the answers except when it comes to her own life.
Rae, a tough on the surface paramedic with a heart of gold, wants more out of life than the meaningless hookups her coworkers seem content with. Determined to put her energy into her career, running, and playing grease monkey with her collection of vintage vehicles, Rae is convinced she has all she needs to live a fulfilled life.
Thrown together in the wake of a tragedy, both women struggle with the attraction they instantly feel for the other. More than aware of the dangers associated with trauma bonding, Rae questions every interaction as Paisley questions who she is.
Will they find a way to triage the hardships they face? Or will Paisley’s inability to break through leave them both in need of counsel?
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Guarded Hearts by Sam Kestrel
With hearts guarded by memories of loss and betrayal, can two women find their way to love again?
Wounded by a cheating ex, Jo vowed to never let anyone close again. Was her love of women the only reason she started her therapy business?
Avery, consumed by crippling grief after the death of her lover, found experiencing pleasure impossible. Could a woman selling sexual intimacy help her heal?
Conflict blooms when Jo struggles against her attraction to Avery, while Avery worries that having feelings for Jo would be cheating on her deceased partner.
Can two hearts so guarded traverse this rocky path to love, or will their fear and missteps prove too formidable to overcome?
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Leave a comment
What book will you be reading for the “sapphic book with an interracial couple” category? Are there any other books in this category you could recommend? Let us know in the comments!
The post Sapphic books with an interracial couple (Hidden Gems #7) appeared first on Jae.
July 19, 2024
Competence is sexy (Sapphic Book Bingo #15)
In this week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category, we celebrate sapphic books with a “competence is sexy” theme—an ode to the allure of brilliant women who excel in their careers and are especially competent in their job.
Did you know there’s even a term for this? It’s called “competence porn”—coined from the pleasure we get from watching extremely capable characters do their job or solve a problem with their impressive expertise, knowledge, and smarts.
15 sapphic books featuring a “competence is sexy” theme
Below, you’ll find 15 recommended sapphic books with a main character who proves that competence is sexy.
Bachelorette Number Twelve by Jae
A kind ER nurse accidentally wins a date with a prickly doctor at a singles auction
Ellie Fisher loves most things about being a nurse in the emergency department…just not working with Regina Novak, an icy attending physician who acts as if she’s God’s gift to medicine.
The dislike is completely mutual. Regina thinks Ellie is a starry-eyed romantic with a sentimental attitude that has no place at work.
When Regina gets talked into volunteering at a singles auction, Ellie accidentally bids on her—and ends up winning. Oops!
Since the money raised is for a good cause, they reluctantly decide to go through with the dates.
Thanks to a baking class that turns into a competition and a hot-as-hell road trip snack incident, the ice between them starts to thaw. Is it possible the ER isn’t the most unromantic place on earth after all?
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Vengeance Planning for Amateurs by Lee Winter
Muffin maker Olivia Roberts has had it with her awful exes taking advantage of her good nature. The theft of her nana’s beloved stuffed penguin is the absolute last straw.
She puts up an ad at her local crime bookstore for a henchperson to help her enact a little mild revenge. To her astonishment, Margaret Blackwood, the mysterious, icy, and annoyingly opinionated bookstore owner, applies.
For two clever, capable women, they turn out to be woeful at vengeance. But much to their dismay, they discover they’re pretty good at falling in love!
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Like They Do in the Movies by Nan Campbell
The Dream: rich and famous screenwriter of hilarious sapphic rom coms.
The Reality: pushing out trashy celebrity gossip for cash.
The Grand Plan: advance career by engineering a celebrity takedown.
Fran Underhill’s adoration for the entertainment industry is in flames, transformed into a loathing of celebrity culture and all those who benefit from it. When a personal assistant gig for one of Hollywood’s most popular actresses falls into her lap, Fran is determined to use the experience to her advantage with a series of tell-all articles. Just enough clickbait to get her next screenplay sold. Now if only she can ignore that ferocious and inconvenient attraction to her new employer.
Chelsea Cartwright—actress, mother, and ex-wife to Hollywood royalty—is struggling. A competent new assistant will do much to ease her burdens, but who could predict the intense and long-buried feelings Fran would awaken. And what will the fallout be when she finds out Fran is a member of the gossip media—with Chelsea’s public destruction in her sights.
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Something’s Different by Quinn Ivins
Unemployed academic Caitlyn Taylor comes home to family drama. Her carefree twin Chloe plans to ditch her job to visit a guy she met online. Caitlyn steps in to impersonate Chloe so she won’t get fired for skipping town. Unfortunately, this means answering phones for an icy, dismissive boss.
Busy college president Ruth Holloway never paid much attention to her mediocre assistant. Suddenly, “Chloe” demonstrates insight into faculty politics and a baffling talent for analytics. And since when has she been so attractive?
Caitlyn dreams of getting closer to her sister’s boss but how can she? Everything they’ve shared has been based on a lie.
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A Calculated Risk by Cari Hunter
Detective Jo Shaw has it all worked out. She’s good at her job, she has loads of mates, and she likes being single. She doesn’t need complications, but an emergency call to the stabbing of a young woman brings plenty of those. Jo has to risk her career to save the woman’s life, and a bad night gets worse when the trauma surgeon turns out to be Isla Munro, Jo’s only real love, who walked out on her fifteen years ago and never came back.
With the victim’s children missing and the husband the prime suspect, Jo’s investigation is stonewalled by a community living in fear. As one dead end leads to another, she and Isla are forced to put their differences aside and work together. But the case is far more dangerous than Jo realizes, and her determination to sort the truth from the lies may put her own life on the line.
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Ensnared in Her Symphony by Jolie Dvorak
Maestro Virve Vintinen is at the very top of her game. She’s the principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – the classical music world is hers to rule and she does so in style. She has a reputation, sure. She’s been known to make entire brass sections cry with one raised brow. She’s reduced the harshest music critics to tears of rapture. She is widely regarded as one of the finest musicians of the age. And she likes to be in control – on the podium and in the bedroom.
Sabina Harper is the acting concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra but her career until now hasn’t been stellar. Previous rivalries and jealousies have made her wary of the limelight, and with a sick niece to help care for, she doesn’t find herself burning with ambition.
When a freak accident leaves the London Symphony Orchestra without a conductor just days before their European tour, Virve steps in to assist. Sitting in the first chair looking up at her is the delectable Sabina Harper. Ms Harper is hot, talented and she plays music that fuels Virve’s soul.
Which is odd, because Virve thought she’d thrown her soul – and her heart – away long ago.
As the tour begins, Sabina Harper proves herself to be eager for exactly the kind of pleasures Virve likes and they make an arrangement to enjoy each other on the tour. But Sabi’s music, her luscious body and her searching brown eyes threaten to crumple Virve’s steely resolve.
Maestro Virve Vintinen might control the music, but who controls her heart?
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Radiant by Judy Sapphire
Blake Harrison’s star is rising. Preparing for her new museum installation, she’s trying to navigate her work, her newfound fame, and her reputation for volatility. She’s also trying to abide by her “monastic before a show” rule, and has no idea what to do about the stunning lawyer who insults her and entrances her in equal measure.
Jenny O’Toole is in a professional and romantic rut. Her career as a corporate lawyer is stifling, she’s closeted at work, and her current relationship is with Netflix and wine. She’s not looking for a new girlfriend, and if she was, she certainly wouldn’t chase an irrational, pretentious conceptual artist like Blake Harrison.
It’s dislike at first sight—but when the artist and lawyer keep running into each other, the loathing turns to lust. As they weather Boston’s frigid winter, Blake and Jenny navigate their deepening feelings, and hope that their budding relationship can weather everything coming between them.
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Over a Barrel by Layla Reyne
Annaliese Rosin is fifty-six and starting over. New city, new job, new scene she’d like to explore with the stunning redhead from her flight home. She just needs to finish one last year-end deal. Should be easy, except her sexy seatmate ends up being the attorney across the table.
Carrington Clarke started over once already. At forty-three, she can’t afford to risk her job, her friends, or her heart, not even for the bossy older woman who understands exactly what she needs in the bedroom—to be watched by others. At least not until their deal closes.
While working side by side, the two women share meals and fears, hopes and dreams, and a chaotic, chef-filled Hanukkah that redefines family. The simmering attraction between them builds as they grow closer, until a last-minute change threatens their deal—and the trust they need to launch their romance outside the boardroom.
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Cutlass Cadaver: The Morelville Mysteries – Book 13 by Anne Hagan
Called to investigate a body found in her brother-in-law’s long lost classic car, Mel digs in to ID the victim and find his killer. Then a family spring break trip turns deadly when Mel’s nephew is accused of murdering a young woman at a haunted house convention.
Using her seasoned investigative skills, Mel uncovers scandalous secrets and puts herself at risk to protect her family and close both cases. But the job is taking an increasing toll, making Mel question how much longer she can continue as sheriff.
For now, justice won’t wait – and Mel won’t rest until the truth is revealed. But the challenges are mounting, forcing Mel to ask herself what matters most – her career or her family?
With two shocking murder mysteries to untangle, only Mel can uncover the cold-blooded killers and bring closure to the victims’ families. But her own family may need her even more in this gripping new tale of secrets, lies, and murder.
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Velvet in Venice by Karin Kallmaker
Artie Bryson came to Venice to finish her PhD. Five years later the PhD still isn’t done, but life is okay. Leading guided tours of the magnificent city pays the bills. The days are all the same — until she seeks respite from the summer swelter in the Casino di Venezia cabaret.
Nikki Velvet has finally found her musical niche singing Postcards from America in a solo tour across Europe. Her bluesy, jazzy, sultry voice brings Artie back the next night. And the next…
The two Americans find they have a lot in common, but Nicki’s gig in Venice ends in two short weeks. Not long enough for anything more than a bit of fun, right? One very old coin knows otherwise.
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Ignis by KJ
Felicity Davis, principal of Rawson Girls Grammar School, is a passionate educator, an inspirational leader, some say even an ice queen, although she’s not sure about that last one. But one thing Felicity knows is that she is perfectly happy with her life. That is until the trauma, the darkness of her past, comes crashing into her present, revealing a deeply buried secret, and placing Felicity and those she loves in incredible danger. Inspector Tal Diamandis takes on the case, attempting to extinguish the flames of Felicity’s past before they consume her. Matters become complicated as Felicity and Tal realise their mutual spark of attraction but when they finally connect the shocking links, the explosive conclusion will leave everyone reeling.
Can Felicity play with fire or will the fire become an inferno?
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Corked! An Enemies-to-Lovers Short by L.M. Bennett
Meet Nola Hughes, a top-notch wine sommelier at the brand new fusion restaurant Kore-Southern Comfort, who’s all about precision and perfection. Nola’s tightly controlled world gets rocked by Langston Mensah, a tough food critic whose harsh review could ruin Nola’s career. When Nola’s perfectionist boss reads Langston’s scathing review, she tells Nola to make it right–or else.
Imagine the heat in the kitchen as Nola, our by-the-book sommelier, finds herself drawn to the very critic who’s complicating her life. Every moment they spend together peels back layers of Nola’s personality, pushing her to explore uncharted territories of love, trust, and, let’s not forget, her dedication to the perfect wine.
Will Nola and Langston discover that love is just as unpredictable and exhilarating as a blind wine tasting?
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46 by Lynn Ames
It’s November 3, 2020, and Emma McMasters has just been elected the 46th president of the United States. She’s facing a divided Congress and nation, allies that no longer trust America, enemies that have been emboldened, and the legacy of destruction left by the last administration. She must rebuild and reestablish trust in government, in the media, and in the electoral system, all the while carrying the mantle of first female president, and along with it, the hopes and dreams of millions of women and little girls who need her to prove that a woman can get the job done.
Palmer Estes has devoted her life and her career to the military, rising to become the highest-ranking female officer in the US Army. An enigmatic, battle-tested hero, she’s the perfect choice to brief the new president on one last, urgent, highly sensitive mission before she retires.
Two strong women, both driven to serve the country they love, neither prepared for the sparks that fly between them.
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Beyond the Blue by TJ O’Shea
Numbers rule Dr. Mei Sharpe’s life. She has no husband, one friend, two daughters, and three random meetings with the same woman within four weeks. Once is chance, twice is coincidence, but upon the third meeting, even Mei in all her empirical rigidness must admit that perhaps the universe is giving her a nudge. A nudge that lands her directly in the path of Lieutenant Morgan Kelly—an affable, charming detective for the Sheriff Department’s brand-new cold case team working down the hall from Mei’s morgue.
More golden retriever than hard-boiled detective, Morgan is determined to pull the asocial widow out of her shell. As the icy scientist warms to her cheerful new friend, an irrepressible chemistry develops, and Mei begins to realize she’s perhaps a different number on the Kinsey scale than previously considered.
As Mei and Morgan struggle with guilt and grief, drama and desires, Mei finds her scientific austerity is no match for the universe and its nudges toward the startling revelation of what her heart really wants.
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Hunting Gold by Ann Aptaker
A golden city of prosperity, energy, the exciting engine of the American Dream. Just underneath, though, is a dark city, with darker ambitions. This is the world of Cantor Gold, dapper art thief and smuggler, who has her own way of securing the rewards of the American Dream. In the conformist 1950s, when same-sex romance was illegal, Cantor decides that any Law that condemns her as a criminal just for her love of women is not a Law she owes any allegiance to. As an outlaw, she thrives earning fistfuls of cash and living life on her own terms. But someone wants to take it all away. Someone wants to rob Cantor of everything: her success in the underworld, her freedom, her life.
Predators are out to destroy Cantor: the cops who violently raid the Green Door Club, Cantor’s favorite watering hole, where the lights are low and the women are willing; and worse, an unknown predator who threatens to destroy Cantor’s life, even destroy the lives of people close to her.
Murder is one of the weapons in the hunter’s arsenal, involving Cantor in the dangerous fate of each corpse. Another is the taunting, threatening notes that turn up on the corpses or at Cantor’s door or at the door of people she visits. And then there are the phone calls and a disguised voice. Someone is invading every minute of Cantor Gold’s life.
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Leave a comment
What book will you be reading for the “competence is sexy” category? Are there other books that are a good fit for this category? Let us know in the comments!
The post Competence is sexy (Sapphic Book Bingo #15) appeared first on Jae.
July 12, 2024
Sapphic book featuring main characters with a disability (Sapphic Book Bingo #14)
This week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category features main characters with a disability. It could almost be a Hidden Gem category because there’s still not enough representation for disabled people in books and other media.
For this category, read a sapphic book featuring a main character who has a physical, sensory, or intellectual disability, a chronic illness, or a mental disorder.
15 sapphic books featuring main characters with a disability
Below, you’ll find 15 recommended sapphic books featuring main characters with a disability:
Roll With Me by Elizabeth Andre
Chloe is a former runner turned wheelchair racer with MS who doesn’t want sympathy or to be saved. She just wants to fall in love. When she meets Rachel, a fellow runner with long hair and beautiful legs, they initially fall for each other, but Chloe is not a regular wheelchair user and is able to keep her disability a secret. Rachel senses that Chloe is holding something back, and this secret tears their relationship apart. For them to be together, Chloe has to let Rachel run past her denial and roll even closer to her heart.
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Pivot by Anna Pulley
After a disastrous and publicly humiliating rejection at a cosplay convention, naive yet hopeful romantic Paula Suarez is left with another crushing failure in her quest for love – and her dream of becoming a costume designer. But when she stumbles upon feisty mixed-race journalist Nita Funmaker, a friendship blossoms which may soon grow into something much more.
Embroiled in a bitter divorce and immersed in pursuing her latest scoop, Nita isn’t sure if she’s ready for another try at love. But with her father’s paper on the ropes and her ex still hounding her, maybe a bit of fun and relaxation is exactly what she needs.
Drawn together by a series of increasingly amusing and absurd events – from Paula joining an underground drag wrestling show to Nita’s secret passion for ice skating – Paula and Nita must navigate their increasingly tumultuous emotions, help each other face their deepest fears, and maybe even find true love along the way.
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Just Physical by Jae
After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, twenty-five-year-old Jill Corrigan takes herself off the romantic market. Not wanting to become a burden to a potential partner, she focuses on her career as an actress instead.
On the set of a disaster movie, she meets stunt woman Kristine “Crash” Patterson, whose easy smile instantly makes Jill wish things were different. Meanwhile, Crash is trained to fall, but she didn’t count on falling in love.
Despite their growing feelings for each other, Jill resolves to let Crash into her bed, but not her heart.
As they start to play with fire on and off camera, will they really be able to keep things just physical?
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Sweet Nothings and Other Confections by Sula Sullivan
Deceit has never tasted so sweet…
Lucille Waters, a spunky but anxious aspiring artist, finds herself caught in a conundrum. Her parents want her to marry or become a governess. In order to avoid either fate, she needs a solution— and quickly. On a whim, she lies and tells her parents she is engaged to the reclusive Lord Fondant. When her mother calls her bluff, Lucille is forced to create an elaborate scheme that will hold up against the scrutiny of her parents. The only problem? It involves convincing Lord Fondant to pretend to be her fiance.
Unbeknownst to Lucille and the rest of the Ton, Lord Fondant isn’t Lord Fondant at all. She’s the newly minted Lady Fiona Fondant; Fiona is a renowned confectioner whose delectable creations have captured the hearts of the Ton. Despite Fiona’s success and wealth, she’s struggling to navigate her new role at the helm of the family business. It’s a lonely, physically demanding job that only exacerbates the chronic illness she must manage day in and day out.
Together, they agree to go through with Lucille’s charade that challenges both their hearts and expectations. As their friendship deepens, Lucille and Fiona find themselves entangled in a world of make-believe; the line between fantasy and reality begins to blur, and an undeniably sweet chemistry simmers beneath the surface. But is their newfound friendship a recipe for disaster?
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Invisible, as Music by Caren J. Werlinger
Henrietta Cochran has spent nearly forty years dealing with the effects of the polio she contracted in 1945. Her braces and crutches restrict her, define her, but they also give her independence. Almost. She hates that she has become increasingly reliant on a series of live-in companions to help her. For some reason, the companions never seem to want to stay very long. So Henrietta retreats further and further into her art, where her physical limitations don’t matter.
Into her life sails Meryn Fleming: out, outspoken, and fiercely political. She’s young, enthusiastically diving into her first job as a history professor at the local college. When she falls, almost literally, into Henrietta’s path, she seems like a godsend.
Little does Henrietta know that this young woman is about to upend her carefully structured existence. Ryn challenges everything, barging right through the walls Henrietta has built to keep others at a distance.
To Ryn, Henrietta is an enigma: prickly and easily insulted at the slightest suggestion that she can’t do things for herself; a brilliant artist capable of producing the most beautiful paintings; and sometimes, when Henrietta doesn’t realize she’s letting her guard down, a tender and sensitive woman.
With Meryn’s youthful optimism pitted against Henrietta’s jaded acceptance of the world as it is, life will never be the same for either of them.
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What the Heart Sees by KC Luck
Four years after a horrible car accident takes her sight and kills her parents, Sage Montgomery has learned to adapt to her new circumstances in Spruce Creek, Oregon. A new life that includes running the Montgomery horse ranch, which has been in her family for generations. As the place where she grew up, Sage has only the fondest memories. But when she learns her home is at risk because of unpaid taxes, Sage must find a way to raise the money. While the bank threatens and unwanted buyers circle, she is faced with decisions she doesn’t want to make for the ranch… and her heart.
With two decades of hard work on Wall Street, Julie Aspen has everything she wants. A career she loves, the perfect Manhattan condo, and a sexy, young girlfriend. People envy what Julie has and she could not be happier. At least until the firm she works for is accused of fraud. Suddenly stripped of everything and risking indictment, Julie returns to where she grew up. The small town she hates—Spruce Creek. Things couldn’t be more miserable until she meets the daughter of a long-lost friend. Suddenly, Julie has second thoughts about what may be important in life and if it is too late to change.
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Meow or Never by Jazz Taylor
Avery Williams can sing, but that doesn’t mean she can sing in front of people. She likes to stay backstage at her new school, which is where, to her surprise, she finds a cat tucked away into a nook. Avery names the stray Phantom and visits any time she’s feeling stressed (which is a lot these days).
As she sings to Phantom one day, her crush, a girl named Nic, overhears her and ropes Avery into auditioning for the school’s musical. Despite her nerves, Avery lands the lead role!
She knows she should be excited, but mostly Avery is terrified. Can Phantom help her through her stage fright? And what will happen if anyone finds out about her secret pet?
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Truly Home by J.J. Hale
The residents of Ruth Miller’s small rural village took it upon themselves to guide her after her parents died. But she’s an adult now and determined to find her own path, starting with learning more about the parents she lost too soon. Maybe if she understands who they were and how they shaped her, she’ll be able to share her life with someone special without the cold fingers of anxiety locking her into the comfort of familiar surroundings.
Olivia Bell’s chaotic childhood has left her lonely. Her independence has served her well in everything except relationships, and she’s desperately searching for connection. She never had a happy home and left the minute she was old enough. The only person she can rely on is her little sister Grace, but Grace needs her help caring for their father—the last thing Olivia wants to do.
When Ruth and Olivia meet, they become the one bright spot in each other’s days. But Ruth wishes more than anything for the family she lost, and Olivia would do almost anything to escape hers. Could home ever be more than a four-letter word?
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The Found Jar by Jaycie Morrison
Horror fiction writer Emily Harris just wants to be left alone with her work. But plagued by writer’s block, she reluctantly agrees to join her friends at their luxurious beach house for the summer. Maybe a change of scenery will inspire her.
Local housekeeper Beck Reynolds keeps her life simple—saving for a boat and avoiding the town bullies while she attends art classes. Meeting successful but prickly Emily leaves her feeling awestruck, and she wants to make a good impression, even though Emily seems determined to run her off. But Beck’s not the one who is just visiting.
Emily knows all about loss, and guilt, and rejection. Opening her heart has always gotten her hurt, and she’s absolutely not letting anyone in, even someone good, or good-looking, like Beck.
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Novel Problems by Elizabeth Luly
Hannah Taylor has some novel problems. The best-selling fantasy author, who writes under a secret pen name, is suffering from writer’s block after her long-term relationship collapses. With the deadline for her next novel fast approaching, Hannah flees Manhattan for Sapphire Springs, New York, planning to hide away until she finishes her book. But when she’s forced to visit the local cafe-bookstore, she accidentally finds herself with a new job and one very attractive new boss. Distractions she definitely doesn’t need with her looming deadline… or does she?
George O’Grady worked hard to turn Novel Gossip into the cafe-bookstore of her dreams, but staff shortages are putting the normally unflappable lesbian under pressure. Hannah’s appearance is a godsend. Although it would be easier if her new employee was less distractingly lovely, because George has a strict rule against dating employees.
Over the course of the summer, Hannah and George grow closer. But can the two book lovers overcome their novel problems, rules, and relationship baggage to write their own happy ending?
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But By Degrees by Kit Eyre
A crumbling office on the outskirts of Leeds is an unlikely location for a bomber to target, especially when it’s only the accounting centre for a care home company. Yet the man on the other end of the phone is adamant – he wants the company director there in the morning or he’ll detonate the bomb.
Danni Morris was already dealing with the ramifications of a failed relationship when she picked up the phone that day. Eighteen months later, she’s still on a mission to find out the truth about what happened, as well as struggling to mend her broken heart.
Can she get the answers she needs and what will be left when she does?
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The Seeker of Stars by Emma Thingsted
Christie Starling is the young, quiet and introverted owner of the bookcafé The Storybook Nook in Shieldaigh, Scotland. She has a routine she follows every single day, and she prefers her simple, quiet life in the highlands with her ever faithful dog, Tiny. But she is also grieving over the woman she lost two years ago.
Helena Frost is a struggling writer from London. Stuck in a writer’s block ever since that day she woke up in the white room and everything was changed. Ever since that day, Helena has been feeling nothing but emptiness and she does not understand why. The words on her screen doesn’t make sense. Nor does anything else.
But on November 29th, she receives a phone call from her grandmother who lives in Shieldaigh and whom she hasn’t seen for a long while. She suggests that Helena comes to stay with her in Shieldaigh for a couple of days. This is exactly the excuse Helena needs to close her laptop, pack her bags and leave London.
In Shieldaigh, it doesn’t take long before she steps into a book café where the fireplace always flickers and books are waiting to be read, and Helena meets the fairy-like woman who owns the store. And her dog who definitely is not tiny.
And as the snow falls and Christmas approaches, two women experiences a Christmas miracle of their own…
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Fragmented by Eliza Lentzski
Residing in the attics of our brains one finds an assortment of things: personal baggage, photo albums spilling with childhood memories, and family skeletons. Harper Dawkins has locked and sealed the door to her personal attic by moving out of state to attend college and dropping all contact with former friends and family. She’s even changed her accent.
Be normal. Fit in. Blend into the crowd: it’s all she’s ever wanted. But Harper’s about to discover that while you may be able to divorce yourself from your past, you can’t run away from yourself.
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House of Refuge by CJ Murphy
Rhebekka and Naomi Deklan have built a life with family and friends surrounding them and their ministry. Their message offers the marginalized an understanding of grace often withheld within the confines of mainstream religion. A documentary on Rhebekka’s former religion unearths buried incidents of abuse. Rhebekka is determined to unseal the special blue envelopes and bring justice to the victims preyed upon by those in power.
The Deklans will make room for old and new family members at their crowded table. Faith will be the rock on which their house of refuge will be built, while walls of love and acceptance will shelter them from the wind and tides of an ever-shifting world.
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My Dream Woman by C H Clepitt
When your dreams are real there’s no-where to escape!
Andi is just holding it together. Working two jobs means she doesn’t need to rely on anyone, but doesn’t have much of a life. In her dreams, however, she is a hero: battling monsters and saving innocents. When her dream woman turns out to be very real, Andi’s life begins to spiral out of control.
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In the Shadow of the Palace by Eliza Andrews
The one thing Cara knows about herself is that she doesn’t want to grow up to be a prostitute. But as the daughter of a prostitute, growing up in a brothel in one of the seediest districts of Port Lorsin, she has resigned herself to her fate. As soon as her monthly blood comes, she will follow in the footsteps of her mother.
But a client of her mother’s takes pity on Cara. Leveraging his status, he takes Cara somewhere she never thought she’d see up close: the palace of the House of Dorsa. When a crisis strikes, Cara finds herself thrust into the very center of palace politics. What comes next will change Cara — and the course of kingdom history — forever.
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Don’t miss Give Something Away Day
For Give Something Away Day on July 15, I put together a special event for readers of sapphic fiction. 88 authors joined me to create the biggest sapphic book giveaway of the year with a total of 100 books.
This year, the event includes not only book giveaways but also free ebooks for everyone to download and book gift cards from Amazon, Bold Strokes Books, and Bella Books!
Whether you prefer ebooks, paperbacks, or audiobooks, there’s something for everyone.
I’ll send out a newsletter as soon as the event starts, so if you’d like to make sure you don’t miss it, please sign up to my monthly reader newsletter.
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What book will you be reading for the “sapphic book featuring a character with a disability” category? Are there other books that are a good fit for this category? Let us know in the comments!
The post Sapphic book featuring main characters with a disability (Sapphic Book Bingo #14) appeared first on Jae.
June 20, 2024
Sapphic characters with swords (Hidden Gems #6)
Sapphic characters with swords have always been popular with sapphic audiences, not just since Xena: Warrior Princess (There’s an entire Sword Lesbians subreddit!). So this year, I included the sword-wielding sapphics as a category in the Hidden Gems part of the Sapphic Book Bingo.
For this category, read a sapphic book in which the main character handles a sword or a similar weapon. It could be a saber, a katana, a rapier, a lightsaber, or another bladed weapon.
15 recommended books featuring sapphic characters with swords
Below, you’ll find a list of 15 books featuring sapphic characters with swords:
A Game of Hearts and Heists by Ruby Roe
Two enemies, one goal: steal each other’s hearts.
Scarlett Grey, disgraced assassin, is determined to get revenge.
Quinn Adams, medic turned-poisoner for hire, is her deadliest rival.
For years, they’ve stolen each other’s clients, sabotaged each other’s business, and occasionally… slept together.
When the Magician Queen offers an irresistible deal, Scarlett and Quinn are forced to work together. But this is not a simple job. With an impossible heist ahead, they’re going to have to trust each other… And that’s not easy when they both have secrets to hide. Harder still when those secrets will betray the ones they love.
Now neither woman is sure if it’s a heist they want to win or a heart.
Two women, two deadly professions, and a romance that could be their downfall.
Available at:
The Unbroken by C.L. Clark
Touraine is a soldier. Stolen as a child and raised to kill and die for the empire, her only loyalty is to her fellow conscripts. But now, her company has been sent back to her homeland to stop a rebellion, and the ties of blood may be stronger than she thought.
Luca needs a turncoat. Someone desperate enough to tiptoe the bayonet’s edge between treason and orders. Someone who can sway the rebels toward peace, while Luca focuses on what really matters: getting her uncle off her throne.
Through assassinations and massacres, in bedrooms and war rooms, Touraine and Luca will haggle over the price of a nation. But some things aren’t for sale.
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A Talent Within by Suzanne Lenoir
Evelyne, born into nobility, and Annika, a peasant girl with a deadly secret, struggle to change their destinies in Valmora, a medieval world controlled by religion, magic, and men.
If only she’d been born a boy, Evelyne could fight with her brothers and fulfill her dreams of glory. Instead, her father has arranged her marriage. Annika knows she’s different. She has gifts the Valmorans call talents, and she’s waited too long to turn herself over to the Temple for training. If she tells anyone now, she will burn as a heretic.
Their blossoming love changes everything.
Both are forced to confront who they are when saving an innocent life exposes Annika’s talent and she’s held prisoner by the unforgiving Temple Paladin. Saving Annika will cost Evelyne all she’s ever known, but her sacrifice may lead them on a path to love and a destiny that will change Valmora forever.
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Outcast by KJ
Rhiannon Clarke is having a week. A week in which her identity is stolen, she is pursued by underworld thugs, then, at the back of a laundromat, she falls through a portal into another realm.
While making every effort to return to Melbourne, Rhiannon is renamed Sevich, must win a sword fight to gain her freedom, discovers she can manipulate elements, and falls for Orilaevar Reysandoral, the sexy warrior princess of Breula; the realm at the end of the spin cycle.
It’s a lot.
As her feelings start to grow, Sev must decide if returning to Melbourne is really what she wants. Will her increasing elemental powers and relationship with Ori divide the realm, or will Sev stay to save Breula from a danger it has never encountered before?
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Errant, Volume One by L.K. Fleet
Aspen Silverglade used to be a force for good, but now she’s just a sword for hire. On the run from the people she once trusted most, she needs to keep her head down and keep moving.
But old habits are hard to quit. One night in a tavern, Aspen tries to save a woman from some unwanted attention. The woman, Charm Linville, is in the middle of a subtle and delicate act of thievery, and she does not appreciate Aspen blundering in.
The disastrous and public rescue-gone-wrong makes the townspeople think Aspen and Charm are a couple. This mistake sets Aspen’s bloodthirsty betrayers on Charm’s trail, tying the two of them together.
Even if Aspen can’t run from her past any longer, Charm shouldn’t have to suffer. Despite Aspen’s determination to work alone, Charm insists on helping—and she has a past of her own. The two of them don’t care for each other’s methods, but as they journey through the villages and wildernesses of Falland, solving problems and meeting magical friends and foes, Aspen and Charm grudgingly come to care for each other. Can these two guarded, stubborn women admit their feelings, or will Aspen’s enemies kill them first?
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The Iron Edge by Lexa Luthor
Spartan warrior, Halcyon, has always placed duty above all else – until one day her true nature as an Omega undoes everything.
Thora is a gorgeous female Alpha slave with foreign features, capturing the attention of Halcyon, who must have her. Like all Alphas, Thora is prideful and thinks an Omega owner will be manageable. She soon discovers that Halcyon is far more than a simple Omega, but rather a warrior, a legend, and the perfect mate to Thora’s Alpha.
For Halcyon, she has dedicated her life towards duty for Sparta, for the military, and for her mate. She has always dreamt of dying in battle with glory and honor for Sparta. That is until her Omega is stirred to life by Thora, triggering Halcyon’s first heat in over a decade. Unable to deny each other, their intense mating brings both life and changes, but at a price. Can Halcyon have both duty and love or will she be forced to choose only one?
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Elyon’s Blades by Alison Naomi Holt
The story follows the military sect of all-woman warriors who live in the Temple of Elyon, led by their fierce Arch Priestess, Sábria.
As protectors of all women in the empire, the Daughters of Elyon are constantly on the move, rescuing women from dangerous situations and seeking vengeance for those who were not saved in time. They are an unbreakable force, bonded by their shared mission and their devotion to the Goddess Elyon.
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A Hired Blade by JC Rycroft
A sellsword’s bargain.
A burgeoning desire.
A future balanced on the point of a blade.
Sellsword Des is travelling alone in a dry and dusty southern land, after a spectacular bust up with her best friend. She’s running low on coin, so when former client Karina offers her a job leading her caravan’s security through brigand country, it feels like a gift.
Des has done the route before, but she isn’t sure about leading solo. She recommends Karina hire Cap, a rugged old mercenary, to head up the crew. Maybe she’ll even learn a thing or two about how to lead, in between the delightful distraction of Karina’s flirtations and keeping the marauders at bay.
As they head off on their long trip across Rescalin, though, the wheels start to come off Des’s plan. The crew is drinking too much, even on duty, and Cap is dismissive of the dangers she identifies. Des worries she’s made the wrong call by putting Cap as the lead, and Karina is in her ear, wanting her to take over.
As brigands close in, will Des back the merc she put in charge? Or will she take over — and risk the caravan’s safety resting on her blade alone?
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The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
Exiled by her despotic brother, princess Malini spends her days dreaming of vengeance while imprisoned in the Hirana: an ancient cliffside temple that was once the revered source of the magical deathless waters but is now little more than a decaying ruin.
The secrets of the Hirana call to Priya. But in order to keep the truth of her past safely hidden, she works as a servant in the loathed regent’s household and cleaning Malini’s chambers.
When Malini witnesses Priya’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled. One is a ruthless princess seeking to steal a throne. The other a powerful priestess desperate to save her family. Together, they will set an empire ablaze.
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The Blood We Spill by Jo Havens
What would make the most ruthless ice-queen assassin in the Kingdom hesitate?
Bound to the Kingdom for life, Cie serves a cruel King, her knives pledged to his word, her life at his mercy. She is also one of the Kingdom’s most privileged slaves – one of the Praetoria: five of the best, sworn to protect the Prince and, one day, to rule at his side. It’s not a bad life – luxurious parties in any of the eighteen worlds, beautiful women falling over themselves to land in her bed, her orders to be obeyed by over forty-eight billion citizens.
But when a routine job goes spectacularly wrong, Cie discovers there is a witness to her failure – a witness to a political assassination the King would never want revealed. It’s Cie’s intense misfortune that the witness is a beauty – a woman with sweet, warm skin that Cie longs to sink into, with deep, brown eyes that hold promises that Cie has only ever dreamt of, a woman whose embrace offers a gentleness and a kindness Cie craves above all else.
Jemma thought she’d been in love before, but when she falls for the King’s assassin, she falls hard. Cie burns her up – the assassin plays fast and loves harder, and Jemma’s head is whirling even as her body is thrilled. Jemma watches as a growing terrorist threat pushes the King to madness and Cie’s orders become more and more violent. The woman she thinks she loves is steeped in red. Is it even possible for a girl from the suburbs to love a person so drenched in blood?
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War and Solace by Edale Lane
Tyrdis is a stalwart warrior raised to value honor, courage, and military prowess. When a traumatic injury renders the powerful protector helpless, she depends on the lovely, tender-hearted Adelle to restore her from the brink of death. Is it merely gratitude or true love that draws Tyrdis to the healer?
Defying cultural norms, Adelle despises violence and those who propagate it, but when her shieldmaiden patient saves the life of her beloved little girl, she must reexamine her values. Could Tyrdis be more than a stiff, efficient killer with an amazing body?
In a kingdom steeped in conflict with their neighbors and internal strife, shocking secrets are revealed, and both women strive to ensure justice prevails. Can they overcome their differences to safeguard their friends, end the war, and fall in love, or will fate prove to be a cruel sovereign?
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Winter Spell by Brenda Murphy
Trapped inside a crystalline sphere by a malevolent sorcerer, Mara spends her days planning her escape and nights using an enchanted mirror to observe her favorite warrior, Reika.
Reika, fierce leader of a band of mercenaries, has spent her life fighting for anyone who could afford her price. Betrayed by her clan, Reika is seized from death by the mysterious goddess, Mara.
Restless and unwilling to accept captivity, Reika vows to free Mara from the sorcerer’s curse or die trying.
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Elemental Attraction by K. Aten
Two people find themselves in a quandary: Aderri, a powerful dragon shifter with some light defensive magic, and Ellys, a half-elven swordswoman for hire, one of the best across the six nations.
When Aderri gets news that she must come home for the naming ceremony of a new hatchling, she’s forced to hire Ellys and her telepathic steed, Roccotári, to see her safely there. Of course, things are never as simple as they seem. Not only do they have to traverse the land between two kingdoms on the brink of war, but Aderri’s Clan expects her to return with a romantic interest. So, for the added promise of triple Ellys’s normal fee, the half-elf agrees to pretend to be Aderri’s suitor.
Ellys and Aderri have to convince a Clan full of magical mixed-shifters for a week that creatures of differing elements can burn with the flames of love, without actually lying. A situation made even more difficult by a matchmaking mare, steamy baths, and an innkeeper with mischief on the mind.
Caught between the weight of the past and expectations of the future, they must find their true destiny within the heat of fire.
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Yarn Of Destiny by Rebekah Nance
Princess Luana Atteberry is destined to become queen, but, because of the old traditions, she must marry before her eighteenth birthday. However, Luana wishes to not marry anyone but her best friend and lady-in-waiting, Nona Hamlett. Nona is a spell caster, and a ball of yarn is what channels her magic. According to tradition, and because it would conflict with the bloodline, royals and spell casters can never marry.
When Luana chooses someone to marry over insisting she marry Nona, Nona stirs up trouble, and the three are forced to go on the quest together to replenish Nona’s magic.
Will the three individuals succeed in their quest?
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Witches, Princesses and Women at Arms by Sacchi Green
In this sexy, erotic anthology of twisted fairy tales, the damsels are the ones doing the rescuing! Full of ancient, adapted tales that were changed to include female/female pairings and also some brand new stories of feminine heroics and sexual dominance, this collection of stories will leave readers under a spell of lesbian love!
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The Valkyrie’s Daughter by Tiana Warner
From the time she was born, Sigrid has only ever been ordinary. Being paired at birth with a plain horse―instead of the powerful winged mare of a valkyrie―meant there would be no warrior path for her. No riding the skies, no glory among the nine worlds. Just the simple, unremarkable life of a stable hand.
Everything changes when a terrible enemy ambushes Vanaheim and Sigrid sees a vision of herself atop a mythical stallion, leading the valkyries into a harrowing battle. Finally, she can grab her future with her own two hands and become the hero of her own story…if she dares.
But her destiny is tied up with Mariam, a fallen valkyrie who’s allied herself with the very enemy Sigrid is trying to stop.
Now Sigrid has left ordinary behind as she begins a journey with the beautiful―if treacherous―valkyrie, each step bringing her closer to answers…and to awakened feelings for Mariam.
But the life Sigrid left behind is starting to look a lot like paradise…especially when her destiny lies in the one place no mortal should tread: the gates of Hel.
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Don’t miss our giveaways, free books & books on sale
Our Pride Reads Celebration is still going on, with a new book surprise (giveaway, free ebook, or a book on sale) awaiting you every day! Head over to the events page to check out today’s free ebook. You can also still open the previous doors.
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What book will you be reading for the “sapphic characters with swords” category? Let us know in the comments!
The post Sapphic characters with swords (Hidden Gems #6) appeared first on Jae.
June 13, 2024
Sapphic books with a spunky grandparent (Sapphic Book Bingo #13)
I grew up with a spunky grandmother who cheated at card games, could quote the Golden Girls, and had the biggest heart ever. That’s probably why I enjoy writing spunky grandparents and why I included them as a category in this year’s Sapphic Book Bingo.
So for this category, read a sapphic book with a feisty grandparent who adds a humorous element, often by trying to matchmake.
15 sapphic books with a spunky grandparent
Below, you’ll find 15 recommended sapphic books with a spunky grandparent:
Departure from the Script by Jae
Aspiring actress Amanda Clark and photographer Michelle Osinski are two women burned by love and not looking to test the fire again. And even if they were, it certainly wouldn’t be with each other. Amanda has never been attracted to a butch woman before, and Michelle personifies the term butch.
Having just landed a role on a hot new TV show, Amanda is determined to focus on her career and doesn’t need any complications in her life.
After a turbulent breakup with her starlet ex, Michelle swore she would never get involved with an actress again. Another high-maintenance woman is the last thing she wants, and her first encounter with Amanda certainly makes her appear the type.
But after a date that is not a date and some meddling from Amanda’s grandmother, they both begin to wonder if it’s not time for a departure from their usual dating scripts.
Available at:
Shay’s Gamble by Amber Perez
In Sin City to celebrate her best friend’s upcoming nuptials, Shay, dealing with her failed marriage, is not in a party mood. But when she locks eyes with a mysterious woman across a crowded room, her strict, traditional upbringing wars against her long-hidden desires. She aches to embrace her true self, go all-in and hit the jackpot.
Allie, a student struggling to provide for her younger sister, heads to Vegas to celebrate her engagement. She thought she hit the big time when she landed the ridiculously wealthy and handsome Jackson Pemberton IV, but as his true colors are shown, it leaves her questioning everything. Maybe financial stability comes at too high a price. Perhaps it’s all or nothing in life. Responsibility battles against following her heart’s desires.
When the two bridal parties repeatedly collide, sparks fly, and they team up to make the most out of their Vegas experience. That decision tosses a wild card at Shay and Allie, forcing them to face feelings they never expected.
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Fake Marriage Planning Inc by Anne Hagan
Iva Romano runs a successful event planning business specializing in weddings with her best friend Jon, but secretly operates a side hustle staging fake nuptials for clients with something to hide.
When investigative journalist Cheyenne Moore asks her to plan a sham wedding to fool her conservative family and to pose as her fiancée, Iva reluctantly agrees despite her ethical reservations.
As they pretend to be in love and hurtle through wedding planning, the lines between real and fake begin to blur. Iva struggles to reconcile her growing feelings for Cheyenne with her concerns about the morality of their deceptive arrangement. Further complicating matters, a rival wedding planner finds out about Iva and Jon’s secret side business and threatens to expose them.
In the end, Iva and Cheyenne will have to decide if their relationship is based on lies or love. Will they take a leap of faith to find their own happy ending? Or, will the falsehoods tear them apart?
Available at:
One Last Summer by Emma Rossi
After her mother checks herself into a mental health retreat, seventeen-year-old Cyra Burton is sent to spend her entire summer with her Gran in Paradise Bay. She hasn’t returned to Paradise Bay since her father walked out on her and her mum five years ago. Cyra meets Riley, a bubbly and beautiful local who is determined to get out of Paradise Bay. But before she leaves, she wants to make her last summer the best yet. She persuades Cyra to join her on a quest to fulfil her bucket list of all the items she wants to complete before permanently leaving Paradise Bay and beginning their lives as adults.
It quickly becomes apparent that Cyra and Riley are more than friends, but Cyra keeps her at arm’s length as she believes that anyone she lets close always leaves. It seems that the only way around it is that they become a summer fling, which has a definite expiration date. However, in a small town like Paradise Bay, Cyra can’t seem to escape the past and it may just ruin her whole summer.
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Nurturing Hope by Kara Ripley
Desiree Adler does not want a girlfriend. Why would she? She has a demanding career as a photographer and content creator, an eccentric but supportive family, and a huge responsibility as a foster parent to a teenager named Hope.
Desi’s life is just fine the way it is. Why risk another heartbreak?
However, Desi’s sister is annoyingly persistent and when she arranges a blind date for Desi, it’s less trouble to agree, get it over with, and return to normal life. The blind date is every bit as terrible as predicted. So why can’t Desi stop thinking about Soledad Reyes?
If Desi has any hope of finding balance in life, she must help Hope confront the ghosts of her past, while confronting her own assumptions about race, power, and identity in the present.
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Last New Beginning by Krystina Rivers
Bailey Kaczmarek has three loves: her dog, her construction company, and her very large family. After she finds out that her fiancée never stopped dating, she resolves to be content with what she has rather than search for happiness in a relationship. It’s not like she has much free time anyway.
Skye Kohl is a high-powered commercial real estate broker who spends most of her waking hours negotiating some of the largest leases in the nicest buildings in Chicago. She’s so focused on topping the list of the most influential brokers in the city that she ignores her love life.
Bailey’s and Skye’s professional and personal lives collide as they join forces on a construction project and deal with their meddling mothers, who think they’re perfect for one another. But the more they clash, the hotter their simmering attraction burns.
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Howl by Lucy Bexley
Lou McCallister owns Howl, the only surviving queer bar in Boston. When an investment opportunity to save the floundering bar is inadvertently sabotaged by Clementine Darby, Howl’s newest employee, Lou is ready to give up. Now Clem will do anything she can to make it right and keep Howl alive, but will she be able to save the bar in time? This sapphic Coyote Ugly reimagining brings the funny and the feels.
Available at:
Heroes by Serena J. Bishop
Aurora and Leela have succeeded in their quest to balance work and family. Aurora has risen in the ranks at her company and has become a well-known environmental advocate. Leela’s business has grown and is the president of the farmers’ market. They have done this all while raising their conceived-by-magic eleven-year-old daughter, Kari. However, the time has come for them to tell Kari about her mystical origins, as Kari’s mind and body start to evolve in powerful ways.
As the family focuses on ways to test Kari’s new abilities, Aurora is placed in the public spotlight due to an ongoing public battle with Houston Energy. The corporate monstrosity dislikes Aurora, but no one despises her—or Leela—more than the social media group, God and Country, or G and C. Rather than get swept up in the hate, they focus on Kari’s emerging supernatural talents.
But that changes when the attacks migrate from the internet and move closer to home.
Will G and C’s taunts and threats cause Aurora and Leela to fall back in the shadows? Do they have what it takes to take the fight to G and C? Or, is Kari the key to saving them all?
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Heartlines by Simonetta Pastorini
Dianna Laydon is an actress starring in one of TV’s top series, Treasure Hunt, but she has never gotten used to fame. In her heart, she’s still the simple Southern girl who had moved to Los Angeles years ago to make her dream come true. She’s also a control freak, a play-by-the-book kind of girl, and a totally rational person. Her life, though, is turned upside down when a new actress is cast as a recurring character in Treasure Hunt.
Vivien Reese has spent her whole life under the spotlights, being the wild daughter of a renowned British director, and a famous actress herself since she was just eighteen years old. With her party-girl reputation and her go-with-the-flow attitude, she seems Dianna’s polar opposite, so when the two girls meet sparks start flying, and not necessarily in a good way. But as they work together and they get to know each other, they discover that they might be more similar than they had initially thought, and more importantly, they’re terribly drawn to each other.
Available at:
Full Circle by Susan X Meagher
After a sudden, dramatic, devastating breakup, Dex and Tracy tried their best to continue being good moms to their daughter Kendall. But they accomplished that in a unique way. Family members served as go-betweens, allowing Dex to have frequent visits with Kendall, while not interacting with Tracy at all. No visits, no calls, no emails, no texts. They have spoken not a single word since the night that Dex was banished from their home.
Surprisingly, Kendall handled the split very well. Her parents’ lives ran on parallel tracks with no drama whatsoever. They were deeply involved with Kendall’s life, just not each other’s.
Now she’s about to graduate from college, and her fondest desire is to have both Dex and Tracy attend her celebration. But since she learned early on that her moms would never choose to share space, she’s had to get creative.
Their forced meeting careens from anger to tears to slap-stick to tender reminiscences. And that’s just in the first hour.
Kendall’s thrilled to be getting exactly what she wanted, and now that the wall of silence has been breached, there might be space for more. Maybe much more…
Available at:
Birds of a Feather by Laina Villeneuve
Adrienne Stecher has always known she’s different, and she’s fine with her place on the spectrum. She loves her job and her apartment, and she’s happy to help out her grandfather a few times a month. If she could just get the peacocks that plague his neighborhood to stop destroying his yard, she’d be set.
Native to Mississippi, Casey Knight knows beautiful when she sees it, and California is full of beauty. She appreciates everything about her college town—the weather, her job, and the majestic birds that populate her neighborhood.
Though every encounter Casey has with Adrienne seems designed to scare her away along with the birds, Casey keeps finding herself drawn back to her neighbor’s granddaughter. Adrienne is adamant that her quirks make it impossible to date, but something about her makes Casey just as certain that they could be birds of a feather.
Available at:
Chasing Shadows by Lila Bruce
Avery Smith, who returned to her hometown of Bethel Springs after time spent away in the big city, is finally beginning to absorb the culture shock and settle into her job at the local Sheriff’s Department. The pay’s not great, there’s a decided lack of decent coffee and available women in town, but those are sacrifices she’s willing to make to in order to be closer to her aging and increasingly eccentric grandmother. When the discovery of a dead body in the county coincides with the arrival of attractive but irritating tv personality Cameron Reinhart, Avery has to put aside her feelings of skepticism and disbelief when Cam claims to have seen Avery’s murder victim — after she was murdered.
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Beyond Always: Book Nine in the Somerville Series (Featuring Lex & Amanda) by Carrie L. Carr
Time waits for no one. Amanda learns this the hard way when her grandparent’s lives change almost overnight, throwing her entire family into disarray. Life at the Rocking W Ranch is never dull, as Lex & Amanda juggle raising a moody preteen, her talkative younger sister, and a toddler who takes “no” as a personal challenge. To make matters worse, Lex is struck by an illness even she has trouble ignoring, leaving Amanda torn between family responsibilities and her need to be with the other half of her heart. When a massive storm strikes as family members are spread throughout Somerville and the ranch, everyone learns how precious life can be.
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When to Let Go by Jo Cox
When your gran’s getting more action in the spare room than you’ve managed for the best part of a year, something’s going wrong. The trouble is, Adie hasn’t realised that yet.
Even when she meets an attractive plumber who can solve all her obvious problems, she’s still determined to play it safe. After all, Morgan is a bundle of anxiety who wants a fresh start, and it’s far easier to focus on everyone else’s issues than examine your own.
It’s all under control until it’s not under control, and when it turns out Morgan also has a knack for asking difficult questions, Adie’s left wondering what the hell she’s been doing with her life. Whether she’ll have the courage to change anything, though, is another thing entirely.
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Catboat Road by Kate Rounds
For Candace “Ace” Ragsdale, Mrs. Forest is an irresistible force of nature: luscious, tantalizing—and maybe not completely out of reach.
No one in her family is moored to social convention—but they’ve each learned to surf the wave of the unfamiliar and make the most of chaos. From Ace’s womanizing-yet-worshipful brother to her elusive-yet-loving parents, we watch this well-meaning family weave its way into a rich tapestry of townspeople, often to comic effect.
The backdrop is the Massachusetts seaside town of Horton, cut off from the world. On the surface, boats sway on their moorings, while below bubbles a primal brew of salt and sea life—much like the Ragsdales, a decidedly modern family whose humor and goodwill skim breezily above an ocean of smoldering emotions.
Into this infinite chaos careens a rebel grandmother who shows up to help the family save the town windmill, whose mysterious energy whips up the coastal disturbances of a changing world. As this spectacle of public conflict and private anguish unfolds, we’re fully on Ace’s side as she pilots the turbulent waters of love, sex, and traditionally non-traditional small-town values.
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Pride Reads Celebration
Have you checked out our Pride Reads Celebration? It’s basically a sapphic Advent calendar in June, with daily free books, books on sale, and book giveaways.
Leave a comment
What book will you be reading for the “sapphic book with a spunky grandparent” category? Are there other books that are a good fit for this category? Let us know in the comments!
The post Sapphic books with a spunky grandparent (Sapphic Book Bingo #13) appeared first on Jae.
June 6, 2024
Sapphic rivals-to-lovers romances (Sapphic Book Bingo #12)
This week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category features sapphic rivals-to-lovers romances—books in which the main characters start out as rivals before falling in love with each other. In a rivals-to-lovers romance, the characters compete for something, e.g., a job, a promotion, a medal or championship title in sports, etc.
The rivals-to-lovers trope has an overlap with enemies-to-lovers romances, but the animosity between the characters is usually less intense in rivals-to-lovers romances.
15 sapphic rivals-to-lovers romances
Below, you’ll find 15 recommended sapphic rivals-to-lovers romances:
Outdrawn by Deanna Grey
It isn’t always lonely at the top.
Noah Blue’s finally got her foot in the door. After clawing her way to the top of the charts with her webcomic, she’s garnered enough attention to earn a full-time position at a comic company re-launching their cult classic comic: Queen Leisah.
Queen Leisah is predicted to be an instant bestseller with movie deals already in the making. Things are falling into place. There’s nowhere to go but up…as soon as she gets one person out of her way.
Sage Montgomery has always been the best artist in every building she’s stepped foot in. Raw talent’s gotten her webcomic to the top of the charts every month for the past eight years. She’s been the best for as long as she can remember. Sure, her career has plateaued but that can be fixed with a big, mainstream comic.
She was promised full creative control over Leisah. Instead, she got a shared credit with the one artist who’s been breathing down her neck since college. The one artist who has a fighting chance of being better than her. Sage and Noah have to work as a team — or, at least appear to work as a team. They thought the hardest part of the relaunch would be drawing together. But that’s easy in comparison to resisting their feelings for each other.
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A Game of Deceit and Desire by Ruby Roe
Can love survive when trust is the rarest magic of all?
Bella Blythe, master of lattice magic, is determined to win the Runic Games… If only her greatest rival, Remy Reid would get out of the way.
For years they one-upped each other in competitions, jobs, and their apprenticeships…
Until a single kiss changed everything.
With the biggest competition of their lives ahead of them, they’re going to have to trust each other…
A futile task when they’re both harbouring secrets filled with betrayal…
With a reputation and a relationship at risk, they’re left with an impossible choice:
Do they want to win a competition or a heart?
Two women, two betrayals, and a romance that will rewrite their destiny.
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Bad Beat: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance by L.M. Bennett
More than Rivals?
They’re both determined to win the two million dollar poker tournament, but there can only be one winner. Jax Bass will stop at nothing to defeat her rival, Miri Black and build her own legacy.
Miri wants nothing more than to silence her critics and prove she’s the superior player.
Jax thinks Miri manipulates people with her stunning good looks and charm to win tournaments, and hates how she represents women in poker. Miri thinks that Jax embodies all the worst parts of the ways women have had to succeed in poker: by dressing and behaving just like the very men who dismiss her as a skilled player.
When Miri eliminates Jax’s mentor, Enid Torres, from the final tournament of her storied career, Jax promises Enid that she will defeat Miri to avenge Enid’s loss. With the attraction between Jax and Miri intensifying, it becomes more difficult than ever for both women to stay focused on their goals.
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The 7-10 Split by Karmen Lee
This is how love rolls…
For teacher Ava Williams, some subjects are not up for debate. Like history—specifically, the one she has with Grace Jones, bowling pro and local celeb. Who is now, for no identifiable reason, teaching at the same small-town Georgia high school as Ava. Once upon a time, they were thick as thieves, best friends, rivals who pushed each other, and total bowling nerds. Then they shared a kiss, sweet and confusing…and after that, they split and nothing was ever the same.
Ava is pretty sure she has every reason to hate Grace. Especially when the school’s soggy potato of a principal announces—finally—that the students can have the bowling team Ava has been pushing for, for years…only to hand it to Grace.
Now they’re expected to be partners and lead their new bowling team to victory in six months. And with that, their rivalry is back. Fierce, ultracompetitive…and with an undeniable attraction that pushes, pulls and crashes together. It’s history. It’s chemistry. And it’s just a matter of time before it explodes…one way or the other.
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An Unusual Year by Mia Kazi
When flirtatious Jo wonders whether she has lesbian tendencies, she begins a relationship with Izzy, a fellow teacher.
Then, Jo moves on to Julia, and agrees to go on a holiday with her to Laos, where she meets Jonno, who isn’t what he seems, and he tricks Jo into becoming a drug mule.
Leaving Laos in great haste, Jo and Julia are stunned when Jonno appears threateningly at their flat in London, and Jo realises she has to solve not only the dilemma of his arrival, but also coming to terms with the fact that she has completely fallen in love with another woman.
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Just a Touch Away by Jae
Hannah Martin has an unusual job: she’s a professional cuddler. While she has a big heart for her clients, she hasn’t found someone special to snuggle up to in her personal life.
Winter Sullivan isn’t looking for love. She’s an aloof workaholic who’s built walls of ice around herself. She would rather drive toothpicks under her fingernails than cuddle, and she certainly doesn’t want to share her space with anyone.
When Winter’s estranged father dies, he leaves her one last surprise: she and Hannah, a perfect stranger, will inherit a building together. But there’s a catch: first, they have to live together for ninety-two days.
Winter is determined to dislike her rival, but soon finds Hannah isn’t what she expected at all. Thanks to a hilarious doormat war, a cuddle dare from Winter’s half sister, and a kiss in the most unusual of places, the frosty fortress around her heart begins to melt.
Will she be able to accept that love might be just a touch away?
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Devil’s Advocate by TB Markinson & Miranda MacLeod
Would you give up everything you’ve worked for your whole life for a chance at true love?
Ashley Tanner’s only desire after losing her father to a prescription overdose as a teenager has been to support her working-class family. Now an ambitious lawyer, she’s on the verge of achieving the coveted partnership she’s worked for her entire career. But with her goal in sight, the return of a mysterious woman from Ash’s past puts the promotion at risk and forces her to confront the sacrifices she’s made to win at all costs.
Caitlyn Brewster is a self-made woman who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Guarding that secret has kept her from cultivating meaningful relationships. In fact, only one woman has managed to pierce Caitlyn’s defenses. A woman who runs more cold than hot. A woman best forgotten. A woman who, when a family emergency forces Caitlyn to move back home to Boston and accept a job at her uncle’s law firm, suddenly becomes her biggest rival.
Their volatile chemistry makes them a powerhouse legal duo, but the energy crackling between them might be more than they’re willing to admit. The closer they work together, the harder it becomes to control their desires, even as they’re faced with a case with stakes that could change everything for them both.
They’re both used to doing whatever it takes to win. What happens when only one of them can be victorious in the end?
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Cory Sloan is Swearing by Jamey Moody
Cory Sloan was the proud owner of The Liquor Box in the brand new Sloan Sisters Shopping Extravaganza. When a rival salesperson threatens the success of Cory’s new business she has to find a way to calm the impending storm, so she uses her best asset: her charm.
Vi Valdez is simply trying to open a few new accounts on the path to her imminent promotion as Vice President of Sales of the largest spirits chain in the state. When a new liquor store opens in the area Vi is working, she takes it as a purposeful threat to her career goals.
Cory finds a way for them to avoid competing for the same accounts and Vi is suddenly able to express the feelings which may have started as animosity but had quickly become more than friendly. Could these two rivals end up on the same team and find love? Or possibly forever?
Come along on this rocky romantic adventure and find out if Cory will be swearing at Vi Valdez or will she be swearing her love forever?
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Chaos Agent by Lee Winter
What happens when the sweetest employee learns her boss’s evil secrets? This opposites-attract ice queen romance asks: Can a villain truly be redeemed?
CEO Michelle Hastings has foolishly promoted a kind, clueless activist to her full-time staff. Now, on top of fighting her inconvenient feelings, Michelle must hide the evil they do.
Eden Lawless relishes her new job, the hot boss who gives her butterflies, and her eccentric workmates who tell weird jokes about their day. Blackmail? Hacking? Doxing? Hilarious! But what if it’s not a joke? Would that mean Eden has to fight the boss she’s falling for?
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The Only Fish in the Sea by Angie Williams
Crab fishing is in Remy Miller’s blood. Millers have been fishing off the coast of Oregon for three generations, so she’s heartbroken when her dad refuses to give her the chance to prove she can captain her own boat.
When Julia Clayman, the beautiful daughter of a rival crabbing family, offers Remy a chance to run her own boat for the Claymans, she knows the decision could deepen the long-standing rift between their families.
All Remy wants is the chance to live her dream, and the more time she spends with Julia the more her dreams include the chance for a happily ever after. But blood is thicker than the waters lapping the Oregon coastline, and old rivalries may mean Remy loses her career and her heart.
Will love overcome the odds for this modern-day Romeo and Juliet?
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It’s in Her Kiss by Rachel Lacey
Two Broadway actresses, one starring role, and a kiss that might turn rivals…into lovers.
Sophie Rindell has dreamed of performing on Broadway since she was a little girl. But after more than ten years of auditioning, she’s still waiting tables and sleeping on a friend’s couch while she waits for her big break. When she lands an audition for a new musical called It’s in Her Kiss, she’s sure this is the one. Not only is she auditioning for the lead, but it’s a queer role, the role of a lifetime for Sophie.
Julia Vega has been working on Broadway for years now, but she hasn’t landed a starring role…yet. When she meets Sophie at the audition for It’s in Her Kiss, she senses a kindred spirit. They’re both talented and driven, but unlike Sophie, who’s been out since high school, Jules is still coming to terms with her sexuality. This role—if she lands it—could help define more than her career.
As their rivalry heats up, Jules and Sophie fight an attraction that blazes hotter than the spotlight. When the curtain rises on opening night, love might take center stage.
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Envy and the Geek by Natalie Falkenwrath
Years ago, Christina Darlington played a sexy teen vampire in High School Bites, a little TV series with a big following. Now Christina travels the country signing autographs, meeting fans, and, if rumors are true, bringing some of those fans back to her bed. Harmony Alder and Jean Lucy Wintz both want to be one of the lucky ones. When the convention circuit brings Christina to town, they both lay plans to connect with their long-time crush. Harmony is sexy, smart, and out- going where Jean is quiet, cunning, and drop-dead gorgeous. Will one of them catch Christina’s eye?
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In the Roses of Pieria by Anna Burke
When Clara Eden is offered a job as an archivist working for eccentric estate owner Agatha Montague, she thinks her prayers have been answered. Soon, she finds herself sucked into the world of her research, captivated by a romantic correspondence thousands of years old. But as her feelings for her employer’s assistant, Fiadh, deepen, so too does her suspicion that something about Agatha Montague isn’t quite right. Unfortunately for Clara, by the time her suspicions are confirmed, it is far too late to run.
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Free Fall at Angel Creek by Julie Tizard
Hundreds of people on Flight 402 vanish in an instant.
When the airplane carrying her sister is reported missing, then later found a smoking wreck, Detective Dee Rawlings never had the chance to finally reconcile after years of estrangement. She’s desperate to find out why the plane crashed, but Dr. River Dawson, the exacting and relentless aircraft accident investigator, believes Dee’s good intentions are interfering with her case and wants her gone. All that changes when Dee discovers critical evidence that doesn’t add up.
Dee and River must find a way to work together to solve the mystery of what happened to Flight 402, all while keeping their inconvenient and unprofessional attraction in check. Their search for answers at Angel Creek will risk their lives and maybe even their hearts.
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Ink Stains & Ill-Fated Lies by Kellie Doherty
No scribe has ever returned from the Sunglade. It’s a continent of burning sunlight and terrifying suncreatures, and the home of the worshippers of Ponuriah, the evil sun goddess. When Adaris Kavari, a disgraced wandering scribe with a lame leg, finds herself following her curiosity too far and gets captured by those worshippers, she’s forced to record their side of history in order to survive. Much to the worshippers’ glee, Adaris is also a Divus—a race whose crafting is used mainly to heal, and sometimes to hurt—and a terrifying young researcher immediately latches onto her because of it.
But Adaris isn’t the only prisoner here. She meets an attractive and snarky painter named Rhonwen with an unfortunate link to Adaris’ past. Wanting to save them both, Adaris conforms to the sun goddess worshippers’ ways while looking for an escape. She knows that once she’s free, she’ll have recorded a keystone story that would help restore her tarnished reputation and might even turn the tide of the upcoming war.
The sun goddess worshippers’ influence is strong, especially with the new elements of crafting Adaris encounters—elements that could turn her pitiful crafting into something new and powerful—and her scribe’s curiosity twists into something even she didn’t anticipate. As a scribe, she’s recorded many heroes’ adventures. Now, it’s her turn to become the hero—by any means necessary.
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An Exclusive Game by Persephone Black
Alessa de Luca always gets what she wants.
And now she wants me.
I’m a federal agent sworn to take down Alessa, the charismatic Mafia princess who runs an illicit empire. But as I infiltrate her exclusive private members’ club in an undercover operation, there’s an undeniable spark between us.
Wanting her is dangerous. Falling for her is forbidden. And loving her?
Well, that could get me killed.
But Alessa seems hell-bent on seducing me. And the closer we get, the closer my team gets to taking her down.
The line between attraction and deception is blurring. Then, when a web of lies threatens to destroy us both, I’m forced to make an impossible decision.
Will I choose the law?
Or love?
Available at:
Pride Reads Celebration
Have you checked out our Pride Reads Celebration? It’s basically a sapphic Advent calendar in June, with daily free books, books on sale, and book giveaways.
Leave a comment
What book will you be reading for the “sapphic rivals-to-lovers romance” category? Are there other books that are a good fit for this category? Let us know in the comments!
The post Sapphic rivals-to-lovers romances (Sapphic Book Bingo #12) appeared first on Jae.
