I have read hundreds of lesbian romance novels, and rooted for countless heroines as they fell in love with each other. Picking favourites isn’t easy in such an exceptional genre; not when every sapphic book nourishes my spirit the way water sustains my body. But the books listed here are my very favourites – novels which, in my opinion, represent the very best of sapphic fiction. They’re a rich mix in terms of style, subgenre, and setting. But they all have something in common: I fell head over heels in love with these stories, and savour re-reading them.
So, in no particular order, here are my favourite sapphic romances:
The Brutal Truth, by Lee Winter
The Brutal Truth made me fall in love with LesFic. I read this book, embraced the label of Romance Reader, and ordered a bunch of other treats from Ylva. Like some of my very favourites, The Devil Wears Prada was a clear influence – it’s an Ice Queen x Age Gap set around a fashion icon. Junior journalist Maddie Gray falls for media mogul Elena Bartell.
The characters have electric chemistry. And the world they inhabit is utterly fascinating. I was pulling for Maddie and Elena the whole way through, but loved their individual arcs as well. Maddie finding her voice as a writer and Elena reconnecting with her passion for fashion shows they’re both a positive influence on one another, and highlights the most empowering possibilities within romance.
I love Winter’s writing style, her insight into human nature, and the way her own experience as a journalist adds depth to the story. Also the way the power differential between Maddie and Elena is approached – Elena very much gives Maddie the space to fulfil her own potential and be her own person. Workplace romances can be kind of dicey, and with Boss/Employee it’s not a trope that always lands particularly well in a post-#MeToo landscape, but this book handles it perfectly.
Truth and Measure / Above All Things, by Roslyn Sinclair
I know, I know, I’m technically cheating by including two books here. But you can’t read one part of the Carlisle series without the other. Besides, this romance began life as one great big fanfiction – the length of a Charles Dickens novel, but much more fun to read. Sinclair revised and modernised her story, which underwent careful editing at Ylva, and now the Carlisle books are their own outstanding piece of sapphic literature.
Jules Moretti is personal assistant to Vivian Carlisle, Editor-in-Chief at DuJour. Middle-aged and going through an acrimonious divorce, Vivian has an unexpected pregnancy – and the only person she can rely on is Jules. The lines between professional and personal quickly blur in this extraordinary situation. Jules finds great satisfaction in taking care of Vivian. And Vivian grows to rely on Jules, the only person she can truly trust in a cut-throat industry.
It’s a magnificent, heartfelt Slow Burn. I took the day off work to read both books when they were released in paperback. And I expect I’ll end up reading them again and again over the years, because never has a love story held a more powerful grip on my heart.
The Jasmine Throne, by Tasha Suri
The Jasmine Throne is a dazzling work of high fantasy about two morally grey lesbians and the choices they make to survive. Princess Malini’s brother wants to sacrifice her to the Mothers of Flame. When she refuses, Malini is exiled to an ancient temple – and there’s more to her maidservant than meets the eye. Priya was a child of the temple until Malini’s father had its disciples burned. And being back there has reawakened a powerful magic in her.
This book is around 500 pages long and it gripped me from start to finish. The richness of a world inspired by Indian lore, the distinctiveness of every POV character’s perspective, the tension of this socio-political landscape… You’d be hard pressed to find a more immersive story.
Also, The Jasmine Throne is in a tiny minority of books that I’ve ever read where every single character is a person of colour. Which feels extraordinary given I’ve read thousands of books in my lifetime and have intentionally sought out work by Black and Global Majority writers since reaching adulthood.
Landing, by Emma Donoghue
Landing is the first interracial lesbian romance that I ever read. It tells the story of Jude, a young museum curator devoted to preserving her small town’s past, and Síle, a cosmopolitan flight attendant – though she’s from Dublin, Síle considers herself a citizen of the world. Their outlooks are very different, as are their backgrounds. Jude’s young, white, and traditional. Síle’s around 15 years older, Asian, and embraces modern technology.
This book depicts a long-distance relationship, and asks interesting thematic questions about belonging and identity. It asks how much we can compromise to sustain a relationship without giving up the key parts of themselves.
I’m not usually a big fan of books where protagonists of colour are written by white authors (in much the same way I don’t generally enjoy depictions of lesbian sexuality through the straight male gaze), but Síle is exquisitely well-realised. It’s easy to imagine her out there in the world (still with Jude, obviously), because she’s one of the most vivid characters I’ve ever encountered.
Backwards to Oregon, by Jae
It’s perhaps the most obvious choice. Everybody loves Backwards to Oregon. And with good reason. It’s a beautiful, sincere book. Luke and Nora’s journey across the Oregon Trail is a remarkable story, as is their path to each other. And the magic of historical fiction is that it allows lesbians to fill in the blanks, give ourselves a past and a heritage that is too often erased from mainstream accounts.
Luke has passed herself as male to fight in the army, claim land, and access freedoms denied to women. And she can get double the land with a wife. Nora works in a brothel and uses what little money she has to shield her young daughter from the bleak reality of their situation. When Luke proposes a marriage of convenience and a new life homesteading, it’s the fresh start Nora has been longing for. But Nora hasn’t a clue that Luke is female. And she has a secret of her own that won’t stay hidden for long.
Backwards to Oregon is one of a kind. And I adore that Luke and Nora make their own rules for what their relationship could look like. Instead of pushing Nora into a subordinate role standard of wives in that era, Luke consistently supports her autonomy. And Nora loves Luke for exactly who she is. They make an incredibly sweet family.
She Who Became the Sun, by Shelley Parker-Chan
A hundred years from now, this book will be considered a classic. She Who Became the Sun is a lesbian, gender-bent fantasy retelling of how the Ming Dynasty was founded. It’s electric from start to finish. I’ll confess that I picked it up for base reasons. Natalie Naudus, who narrated the audiobook, went on TikTok and told us which page had “sapphic fisting” – the single most compelling piece of marketing I have yet encountered.
And yes, the carnal aspects of this book are otherworldly. But the story is exceptional. An unnamed peasant girl with a future of nothing predicted claims her brother’s great fate after a bandit attack, becoming Zhu Chongba. She learns about power and politics in a monastery, nurturing her seed of greatness and seizing every opportunity to grow it.
Parker-Chan’s writing is magnificent. Blade-sharp prose, a stunning cast of characters, and a socio-political setting made all the more fascinating by magical elements. The Mandate of Heaven, a concept used to legitimise a leader’s rule, becomes a flame. And while all the characters in this book are people of colour, it does an incredible job of exploring imperialism – and just how complicated it is to love someone whose power is rooted in your own oppression.
Touchwood, by Karin Kallmaker
Karin Kallmaker has been writing remarkable lesbian stories for longer than I’ve been alive. She’s one of the greats, a living legend within this community, and the hardest part of compiling this list was settling on just one of her books. An honourable mention goes to Cowgirls and Kisses, but my ultimate favourite of her books is Touchwood. I picked up that book and felt like it had been written just for me. I was 29 at the time – the same age as the protagonist Rayann, who falls in love with Louisa, a charming older woman who runs a bookshop.
It’s a delicate, deeply moving romance. On paper there are lots of reasons Rayann and Louisa shouldn’t be together – not least because Louisa’s son doesn’t know about her sexuality. But the connection between them transcends differences of life experience, and the attraction is impossible to deny.
I expect to read Touchwood again and again. It was only Kallmaker’s second book, but already she had immense skill as a writer. She’s the queen of characterisation. There’s a depth to the inner lives of Kallmaker’s heroines that makes them unforgettable.
Lou Morgan 
One response to “My Top Seven Sapphic Romance Books”
[…] is one of my very favourite books. When I read it for the first time, it felt like it had been written just for me. I was delighted […]
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