Updated on October 6, 2026
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Three books, three very different kinds of sapphic love story. One is a literary debut about a girl in a small Irish village who cannot stop wanting her best friend. One is an adult second-chance romance with real heat and real grief in it. One is a YA romance about two teenagers who are out to very different degrees. I picked them because each is the strongest example of its type that I keep coming back to, and because each has enough reader evidence behind it to say something honest about who it will and will not work for.
This page was first published in July 2026 with short blurbs and Amazon star averages. I have rewritten it in October 2026 with checked Goodreads numbers, publication and audio details, what readers actually praise and complain about, and links to our full reviews where we have them.
Who This List Is For
This is a starter list, not a ranking of the genre. It is for three kinds of reader:
- The reader who wants yearning above all. If what you want from a sapphic book is the ache of wanting someone you are not supposed to have, start with Sunburn.
- The romance reader who wants a guaranteed happy ending and open-door scenes. Like First Love, Again is the only one of the three written to genre-romance rules, with explicit content and a happy ending.
- The reader buying for a teenager, or who simply likes YA. Some Girls Do is published for ages 12 and up, keeps the heat low, and is about coming out as much as it is about falling in love.
If you want one good book tonight and are not sure which mood you are in, the table and the “which one first” section will get you there in a minute.
How These Three Were Picked and Checked
Every number on this page was checked on October 5 or 6, 2026. Goodreads averages and rating counts were read directly from each book’s Goodreads page. Publisher, imprint, release dates and awards come from the publisher pages (Penguin Random House for Some Girls Do and the US edition of Sunburn), the American Library Association’s own list pages, and the audiobook publishers. Libro.fm availability and runtimes were checked on October 6. Where I could not confirm a detail, I left it out. Reader themes are patterns that repeat across many reviews; when a point comes from one or two readers, I say so.
The earlier version of this page quoted Amazon star averages of 4.5 to 4.6 for all three books. Those Amazon figures flatter every title, and they hide the most useful fact about this trio: the three books sit at very different places with Goodreads readers, who tend to be harsher and far more numerous. Sunburn sits at 4.24 and Like First Love, Again at 4.25. Some Girls Do sits at 3.69. That gap is a real signal, and I explain it in the book’s section rather than smoothing it over.
The Three Books at a Glance
| Book | Type | Goodreads (Oct 2026) | Heat | Ending | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth | Literary coming-of-age, 1989–1993 Ireland | 4.24 from 99,941 ratings | Moderate; on the page but impressionistic | Literary, not a romance HEA | Yes, read by Toni O’Rourke |
| Like First Love, Again by J.J. Arias | Adult contemporary romance | 4.25 from 3,932 ratings | Explicit, open door | HEA | Yes, read by Kingsley Rose |
| Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan | YA contemporary romance | 3.69 from 31,780 ratings | Low (YA, ages 12+) | Hopeful; book 1 of 2 | Yes, read by Nora Hunter and Bailey Carr |
1. Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth
Read our full review: Sunburn review
The premise
Lucy grows up in a small, conservative village in County Cork between 1989 and 1993, the years in which Ireland was moving toward decriminalising homosexuality. The life laid out for her is the expected one, with a nice boy at the end of it. The problem is Susannah, her friend, whom Lucy wants with an intensity she cannot name and cannot stop. The novel follows those years from the inside, and most of its drama happens in Lucy’s head: what she lets herself feel, what she hides, and what that hiding costs the people around her.
Publication and critical reception
Sunburn is Howarth’s debut. It was first published in the UK by Verve Books in June 2023 and came out in the US from Melville House on July 8, 2025, at 288 pages. It was shortlisted for the Nero Book Award for Debut Fiction, the British Book Awards’ Discover Book of the Year, and the Polari First Book Prize. The US edition became a USA Today bestseller and an Indie Next pick for July 2025. Kirkus called it “a romantic, funny, and painful exploration of the cost of being true to yourself.” Howarth’s second novel, Heap Earth Upon It, is a very different, darker book, and we have reviewed it separately.
What readers are saying (October 2026)
This is by a distance the most-read book on the list: 99,941 Goodreads ratings and 24,643 written reviews, with a 4.24 average. Forty-five percent of those ratings are five stars and 82 percent are four or five stars, while one- and two-star ratings together come to about 3 percent. That is a book people finish and recommend, not one that splits its audience.
The praise is consistent. Readers single out the prose as lush and sensory, the yearning as almost physically uncomfortable, and the Irish setting, with its Catholic guilt and small-town watchfulness, as a character in its own right. Many reviews say it captures the pull between self-acceptance and what family and community expect better than almost anything they have read.
The criticism is just as consistent, and worth taking seriously before you buy. The most repeated complaint is pace: a substantial group of readers finds the book slow and repetitive, with Lucy circling the same feelings for long stretches. A second group finds Lucy frustratingly passive, particularly in how she treats Martin, the boy she drifts toward because he is the safe choice. A smaller number find the prose overwrought in places. None of these readers say the book is bad; they say it asks for patience it does not always repay.
Heat and ending
The heat is moderate. There are intimate scenes between Lucy and Susannah, and romance.io readers place it in the 3-of-5 open-door band, but they are written as sensation and feeling rather than explicit description. The book is about wanting far more than about sex. It is also literary fiction rather than genre romance, so it does not owe you a happily-ever-after. Our full review describes the ending as bittersweet and realistic. If you need a guaranteed happy ending, read this one knowing that going in.
Read it if, skip it if
Read it if you loved Call Me by Your Name, Last Night at the Telegraph Club or Carol, or if you want a book that sits with the feeling of a first love rather than racing to the resolution. Skip it if slow pacing reliably loses you, or if you want two leads with equal page time; this is Lucy’s book. For more in this vein, see our books like Sunburn list and books like Carol.
Prefer audio? The audiobook is narrated by Toni O’Rourke. Listen to Sunburn on Libro.fm — the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.
2. Like First Love, Again by J.J. Arias
The premise
Tori Cruz is a real estate broker who has built a careful, guarded adult life. Mia Falcon was her childhood best friend and the girl Tori was in love with, without ever saying so. More than a decade later, Mia comes back into her life while dealing with loss and upheaval in her own adult life. The book is a friends-to-lovers story and a second-chance story at once: the friendship has to be repaired before anything else can happen, and the old crush has to survive contact with who they both became.
Publication
Arias published the book independently on May 31, 2025. Goodreads lists the Kindle edition at 272 pages. Podium Audio released the audiobook on November 4, 2025, narrated by Kingsley Rose, at 9 hours and 29 minutes. Both leads are Latina femme lesbians, which is still rarer than it should be in the genre.
What readers are saying (October 2026)
For a self-published romance about a year old, the evidence base is solid: 3,932 Goodreads ratings and 346 written reviews, with a 4.25 average. That puts it a hair above Sunburn on average, though from a much smaller readership.
The praise clusters around three things. First, emotional depth: readers repeatedly say the grief storyline is handled with care and that the book is about two whole people, not just a couple. Second, communication: “healthy communication” and “drama-free” come up again and again, and many readers say plainly that there is no third-act breakup, which for a lot of romance readers is the deciding factor. Third, heat: the open-door scenes are a highlight for a large share of reviewers, with one calling them “smoking hot.”
The criticism is milder and less unified. Several readers question the foundation, arguing that the love story rests on one girl’s unrequited teenage crush rather than something both of them felt. Some find Mia anxious to the point of annoyance, while others read the same traits as drive. At least one reader wanted more on the years they spent apart, and a few found the arc predictable. None of these complaints recur at the level of the praise.
Heat, ending and content notes
Expect explicit, on-page sex with frank language; I Heart SapphFic files it under its “hot and steamy” level. The ending is a happily-ever-after. Content notes listed by readers and by I Heart SapphFic include the past death of a parent and a past early-term miscarriage. The tropes are friends-to-lovers, second chance, secret crush and slow burn.
Read it if, skip it if
Read it if you want a grown-up romance where grief and desire share the page, two leads who talk to each other, and a happy ending you can trust. Skip it if you prefer closed-door romance or if “one of them pined for years” is not a premise you find romantic. If this hits, our sapphic second-chance romance and friends-to-lovers lists are the next stop, and slow burns with no third-act breakup covers the same no-drama itch.
Check Like First Love, Again on Amazon →
Prefer audio? The audiobook is narrated by Kingsley Rose. Listen to Like First Love, Again on Libro.fm — the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.
3. Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan
Read our full review: Some Girls Do review
The premise
Morgan is an elite high-school track athlete who has to change schools after her Catholic school pushes her out for being openly gay. At her new school she meets Ruby, quite literally, when Ruby hits her with her car. Ruby competes in beauty pageants, secretly loves restoring old cars, and is not out. The romance is real, but the engine of the book is the gap between the two girls: Morgan has paid a price for being visible and wants to be visible anyway, while Ruby has reasons, including safety, for keeping quiet.
Publication and critical reception
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers published it on May 18, 2021, for ages 12 and up. It has the strongest institutional record of the three. It was a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection for 2022, an ALA Rainbow Book List selection, and a Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year. Shelf Awareness gave it a starred review, NPR called it “a smart, heartfelt teen romance,” and School Library Journal praised how it handles serious issues alongside the rush of first love. Becky Albertalli and Casey McQuiston both blurbed it.
What readers are saying (October 2026)
Here is where the honest picture differs from the Amazon stars. On Goodreads the book averages 3.69 from 31,780 ratings and 3,984 written reviews. When we reviewed it in full in September 2026, StoryGraph had it at 3.63 and Amazon at 4.5 from 2,735 ratings. That spread tells you the book lands very well with some readers and frustrates a large minority.
What readers love is Ruby. She is the character most reviews come back to, and her storyline (the pageants, the cars, the reasons she is not out) is where the book feels most alive. Readers also value that it shows two different, legitimate ways of being a queer teenager.
The frustration is just as specific. The most repeated criticism is Morgan’s pressure on Ruby to come out, which many readers find unfair given that Ruby’s caution is grounded in real risk. The second is communication: a large share of reviews say the girls spend much of the book hurting each other before admitting how they feel, and that the conflict runs on miscommunication more than on genuine incompatibility. Our full review lands at 3.4 out of 5 for exactly those reasons.
Heat, ending and series status
The heat is low, as you would expect for a 12-and-up book. The ending is hopeful, but this is book one of two. The sequel, Girls Like Us, follows Morgan and Ruby into their first year after high school and a long-distance relationship; we have reviewed it as well. You can stop after book one and feel the story is complete.
Read it if, skip it if
Read it if you want a YA romance that takes coming out seriously and gives a closeted character room to be right about her own safety. Skip it if miscommunication plots make you want to throw the book across the room. If you like Dugan’s voice, Anderson in Bloom is another of hers we have reviewed, and our lesbian YA books hub and I Kissed Shara Wheeler review are good next steps.
Check Some Girls Do on Amazon →
Prefer audio? The audiobook is narrated by Nora Hunter and Bailey Carr and runs 9 hours 14 minutes. Listen to Some Girls Do on Libro.fm — the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.
Which One Should You Read First?
Go by mood, not by rating.
- If you want to feel something and do not mind slow: Sunburn. It is the most acclaimed and most widely read of the three, and the one most likely to stay with you. Give it the first fifty pages before judging the pace.
- If you want a romance, full stop: Like First Love, Again. It is the only one built on romance-genre promises, with a happy ending, open-door scenes and no breakup in the final act.
- If you want something lighter, younger, or to hand to a teen: Some Girls Do. Go in knowing the middle leans on miscommunication; the readers who love it love Ruby.
What the Three Books Have in Common
On paper these books have little in common: an Irish literary debut, a self-published adult romance and a big-publisher YA novel. Read back to back, they circle the same question: what happens when one person is further along than the other.
In Sunburn, Lucy knows what she feels long before she can act on it, and the cost of that gap falls on the people around her, Martin included. The book lets the imbalance hurt and does not rush to fix it. In Some Girls Do, the gap is about being out: Morgan has already paid for her visibility and Ruby has safety reasons not to pay yet, and the conflict lives in that difference. In Like First Love, Again, the gap is a decade old. Tori loved Mia as a teenager and never said so, and the romance only works once both women arrive at the same place as adults.
The pressure moves inward from book to book. Lucy is up against a watchful village and the Church. Ruby is up against a world where being out carries real risk. Tori and Mia are up against nothing but grief, history and the fear of losing the friendship a second time. Readers also name one shared weakness in different words: the gap is sometimes held open longer than the story needs. Sunburn readers call it slow, Some Girls Do readers call it miscommunication, and a minority of Like First Love, Again readers question whether a one-sided crush is enough of a foundation.
What the Ratings Do and Do Not Tell You
A 3.69 next to a 4.24 and a 4.25 looks like a verdict, but it is partly a measure of audience. Some Girls Do is a YA book read by a very large number of adults, and adult romance readers are often harder on teenage miscommunication than its intended readers are. Like First Love, Again is read mostly by people who went looking for a sapphic romance, which tends to lift averages. Sunburn is the most striking number: holding 4.24 across nearly 100,000 ratings, from a readership that reaches well beyond romance fans, is hard to do.
So use the averages as a rough guide and the reader themes as the real one. If a book’s most repeated complaint is your personal dealbreaker (slow pace, miscommunication, explicit content), no star rating will save it for you.
Listening Instead of Reading: The Audiobooks
All three are on audio, all three are stocked by Libro.fm (checked October 6, 2026), and each runs a little over nine hours.
- Sunburn: narrated by Toni O’Rourke, 9 hours 23 minutes, from W. F. Howes. The whole novel is Lucy’s voice, so the narrator carries more of the book than usual; sample it before you buy.
- Like First Love, Again: narrated by Kingsley Rose, 9 hours 29 minutes, from Podium Audio, released November 4, 2025. The open-door scenes are in the audio too, so this is a headphones book.
- Some Girls Do: narrated by Nora Hunter and Bailey Carr, 9 hours 14 minutes, from Penguin Random House Audio. Two narrators suit a story built on two girls with very different outlooks.
Buying through Libro.fm shares the sale with an independent bookstore you choose. Each book’s section above has a direct link.
More Sapphic Love Stories Like These
If one of these three worked for you, these hubs go deeper in the same direction:
- Books like Sunburn: coming-of-age, secrecy and longing.
- Books like Last Night at the Telegraph Club: historical first love.
- Yearning slow-burn lesbian romance.
- Sapphic second-chance romance.
- Friends-to-lovers lesbian romance: 25 books reviewed.
- Lesbian YA books.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which of these three sapphic books is the spiciest?
Like First Love, Again by J.J. Arias. It has explicit, open-door scenes. Sunburn is sensual but not explicit, and Some Girls Do is a YA book for ages 12 and up with low heat.
Does Sunburn have a happy ending?
Sunburn is literary fiction rather than genre romance, so it does not promise a happily-ever-after. Our full review describes the ending as bittersweet and realistic.
Is Some Girls Do a standalone?
It is book one of two. The sequel, Girls Like Us, follows Morgan and Ruby after high school. Some Girls Do ends on a hopeful note and works on its own.
Is Like First Love, Again a second-chance romance?
Yes. It combines second chance and friends-to-lovers: Tori and Mia were childhood best friends, and Tori was secretly in love with Mia. They reconnect more than a decade later, and the book ends in a happily-ever-after with no third-act breakup.
Are these books available as audiobooks?
Yes, all three, and all three are on Libro.fm. Sunburn is narrated by Toni O’Rourke, Like First Love, Again by Kingsley Rose, and Some Girls Do by Nora Hunter and Bailey Carr.
Which book should I read if I am new to sapphic fiction?
Pick by mood. Choose Like First Love, Again for a romance with a guaranteed happy ending, Sunburn for literary yearning, and Some Girls Do for a lighter YA story about coming out.
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