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Verdict: A rare, frank and often funny butch/butch romance about the only two lesbians in a conservative ranch town, with heat readers rave about, held back by a heroine many readers struggle to like and a third act that resolves its hardest moment too quickly.
Best for: Readers hunting for two butch heroines on the page, who want explicit, rough-edged chemistry and a realistic look at closeted small-town life, and who can stick with an abrasive lead until she starts to crack.
Heat level: ★★★★☆ (4/5 — no romance.io steam band yet; derived from the author’s own billing and consistent reader reports of explicit scenes)
Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.6/5 — a 3.95 Goodreads average across 212 ratings, pulled down by how often readers say they couldn’t stand Tess)
Tropes: Butch/butch, catfished by old photos, bad first date, friends with benefits, only two lesbians in town, closeted heroine, newcomer in a small town, enemies-to-lovers banter, power struggle in bed, outing.
Desperate Times by Hildred Billings is a 2018 standalone from her own Barachou Press, a contemporary lesbian romance and a small-town lesbian romance set in the conservative ranching community of River Rock — and the collision at its centre is Tess, a closeted rancher who wants a soft femme, meeting Sidney, the newcomer who wants exactly the same thing, after both of them posted dating profile photos that were years out of date.
It holds a 3.95 average across 212 Goodreads ratings, and a 4.3 on Audible for the 2019 audiobook. That is a strong showing for a quiet indie backlist title. But the reviews themselves split harder than the average suggests: the same heroine who is the reason some readers love it is the reason others quit. Both halves of that split are worth understanding before you start.
What Is Desperate Times About?
Desperate Times is a contemporary small-town romance in the most unglamorous sense. River Rock is not a cosy postcard town with a bakery and a found-family book club; it is a gossipy rural hamlet where people have too much time and too little tolerance, and where being gay is something you hide if your family’s livelihood depends on the neighbours. The romance is not only about whether two women can like each other — it is about whether one of them can afford to be seen liking anyone at all.
Tess is the local: she works her father’s ranch, keeps her sexuality locked down, and has a clear idea of the kind of woman she wants, which is not a woman who looks like her. Sidney is the incomer, arriving from somewhere with a real queer community and taking a caretaker job at a historic building in town. She is more relaxed and far more amused by the situation than Tess. The pairing is the point — two masculine-of-centre women who each expected to be the butch in the relationship, forced to work out what that means when neither is willing to play the femme.
What Makes This Butch/Butch Small-Town Romance Work
- The pairing itself: Readers repeatedly say they picked it up because butch/butch romance is so rare. One reviewer found it after a reader group was asked for butch/butch recommendations and this title came up repeatedly.
- The heat: “Hot” is the word readers reach for most. Reviewers single out the jostling over who tops, and a couple describe it as the author’s signature strength.
- The humour: Sarcastic inner monologues and bickering dialogue get repeated praise, with Sidney’s running conversations with herself named as a highlight.
- Small-town realism: Readers credit it with an honest picture of being closeted in a conservative rural community, and at least one butch reader says it matched her own experience.
- Sidney: Even readers who dislike Tess tend to like Sidney — patient, grounded and willing to compromise without letting herself be walked over.
Book Synopsis
Tess has lived in River Rock all her life, and she knows exactly what a lesbian can and can’t get away with there. Her solution has been to keep her head down, work the ranch, and look for companionship through a dating app in the hope that some soft, pretty woman within driving distance will turn up. When a match finally agrees to meet her at the local bar, she is ready to be charming.
The woman who walks in is Sidney, and she is not what her photo promised — and Tess, whose own picture is just as out of date, is not what Sidney was expecting either. Both of them came looking for a femme. Both of them are anything but. The date goes badly, and they part on the understanding that neither will be making that mistake again.
Except River Rock is small, and there is nobody else. They keep running into each other. One bad evening turns into a night together that neither intended, and the night turns into an arrangement: no feelings, no labels, just two lonely women who have found the only option in town. For Sidney, who has no one to hide from, it is great entertainment. For Tess, every visit is a risk, every truck parked in the wrong driveway a rumour waiting to start. The more time they spend together, the harder it becomes to pretend this is only about convenience — and the harder it becomes for Tess to keep the rest of River Rock from noticing.
My Review
The premise is the best thing here, and it is genuinely unusual. Most sapphic romance, including most butch romance, pairs a masculine heroine with a feminine one; Billings builds an entire book around two women who each expected to be the butch in the room and have to renegotiate everything from flirting to who takes charge in bed. Readers who have waited years for this pairing say it was worth the wait, and the frankness about desire, roles and “switching” is the element they talk about most.
The second strength is voice. Readers repeatedly praise the sarcastic humour, the dialogue and the inner monologues, and several note the clean, well-structured writing — even a three-star Amazon reviewer who couldn’t buy the relationship grants that the book is grammatically and structurally solid. The heat is written with the same bluntness: explicit, varied, and in one reader’s word sometimes “bruising.” It suits a book about two stubborn women who don’t know how to be soft with each other.
Where it struggles is Tess. This is the dominant complaint, not a personal gripe — it recurs across Goodreads, Amazon and the Lesbrary. Readers call her crass, rude, high-strung and hurtful; one Goodreads reader quit at 33% over what she saw as Tess enforcing rigid gender norms; others say they simply never warmed to her. That would matter less if her arc paid off, but a second group of readers — including the Lesbrary reviewer and a two-star Goodreads reviewer — say she barely changes, and that the book runs out of pages before its central problem is truly resolved. The Lesbrary review liked the first two-thirds but found the third act’s handling of Tess’s outing, and a choice Tess makes to deflect gossip, too damaging for the brief reconciliation that follows.
One expectation to reset: the blurb and the “bad date” setup read like a rom-com, and it is funny, but not light. The homophobia is real, the closet is suffocating, and the lead is abrasive by design. If you want fluff, calibrate. If you want a sharper, rougher romance about what it costs to be out where nobody else is, you are in the right place.
My honest note: A rare, genuinely sexy butch/butch premise carried by humour and heat, and weighed down by a heroine who asks a lot of your patience and an ending that gives back less than she takes. If an unlikeable lead ruins a book for you, this will; if you can ride out Tess’s walls, the pairing is worth finding.
| Element | In Desperate Times |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | Tess & Sidney — closeted local rancher and out newcomer, both butch, friends with benefits to lovers |
| Core tropes | Butch/butch, catfished by old photos, friends with benefits, only two lesbians in town, closeted heroine, outing |
| Setting | River Rock — a small, conservative ranching town in rural America |
| Heat level | 4/5 — explicit and frequent; no romance.io band yet |
| Series | Standalone — the couple ends together; ending reads closer to happy-for-now |
| Content notes | Small-town homophobia and slurs, internalised homophobia, a heroine being outed, public humiliation, pressure to appear straight, emotionally distant parent, explicit and sometimes rough sex |
How Spicy Is Desperate Times?
A 4/5, with a caveat on the source. romance.io lists the book but has only two ratings and no steam band, so the number here is derived rather than quoted: the author’s own blurb promises “no-holds-barred carnality,” and every reader who mentions the sex backs that up. They describe it as “hot and heavy,” call the sex scenes explicit, varied and well paced through the book, and one reader says it is heavier on sex than plot. The heat is a primary draw, not an interruption.
The element worth knowing in advance is tone rather than quantity: the scenes are direct and sometimes rough, and a running power struggle over who leads is part of the appeal. No reviewer I found flags a consent problem on the page; the discomfort readers report is about the homophobia around the couple, not the sex between them. For small-town romance in the same heat band, Touch the Sky and Against All Odds sit at the same level.
Who Should Read This Book?
You’ll likely love it if: you have been looking for two butch heroines in one romance, you want explicit scenes with a real power dynamic, you enjoy sarcastic, bickering leads, and you value a clear-eyed look at being closeted in a conservative small town.
You may want to skip it if: an unlikeable heroine ruins a book for you, you want a sweet, low-conflict read, you need a slow, fully worked reconciliation after a big betrayal, or depictions of small-town homophobia are hard reading right now.
In short: a rare pairing with real heat and bite, if you can live with a heroine who bites back.
What Readers Are Actually Saying (September 2026)
There is no buzz cycle behind Desperate Times, and there never really was one. It came out in May 2018, picked up a Lesbrary review in 2019, and has grown slowly since, with new reviews still arriving in 2026. It is barely catalogued elsewhere: romance.io has two ratings and no steam band, and StoryGraph shows mood tags (emotional, funny, hopeful, medium-paced) but no community stats. What keeps it moving is word of mouth in a very specific niche. Whenever readers ask for butch/butch romance, this title surfaces — one Amazon reviewer says a reader group mentioned it again and again. The other engine is audio: the Marie Smith audiobook released in March 2019 and runs 7 hours 9 minutes, it holds a 4.3 on Audible from 57 ratings, and a striking number of the Goodreads reviews are from listeners. One reviewer rated the print book three stars and the audiobook four, saying the narration made Tess far easier to understand.
Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The pairing, first and most consistently — “rare” is the recurring word, usually followed by gratitude that the book exists at all. Second, the heat, praised in almost every positive review and often in the negative ones. Third, the humour: sarcasm, banter and inner monologue come up again and again, with several readers calling it laugh-out-loud funny. Fourth, the realism of the setting. And a notable minority view: the readers who do like Tess say she is the one who grows most, precisely because she has the furthest to travel.
What readers argue about and complain about: Tess, above everything. Crass, rude, frustrating and hurtful are the recurring descriptions, and her treatment of Sidney is why most three-star and lower ratings exist — a 1-star review says simply that she is annoying, and a DNF at a third of the way in cites her rigid views on gender roles. The second theme is growth: readers are split on whether she changes enough, and one wished she had opened up more by the end. Third: the third act. The Lesbrary reviewer, the most detailed critical voice, found the outing sequence and its aftermath poorly handled and the reconciliation brief and unsatisfying. Beyond that, one reader felt the rural cast was uniformly homophobic, one Goodreads listener criticised the narrator’s pronunciation, one reader wished the cover showed two butch women, and a Vocal reviewer found the first half whiny but warmed to the second.
The standalone question worth asking first: Desperate Times stands alone and requires nothing else. Tess and Sidney end together, though the reconciliation is brief and the ending feels closer to happy-for-now than to a sealed happily-ever-after, even if some readers call it an HEA. If you want to sample her co-written work, our review of The Girlfriend Arrangement covers one of those books. For butch/butch specifically, though, this solo standalone remains the title readers point to.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Desperate Times a butch/butch romance?
Yes. The author’s own blurb describes Tess and Sidney as two tough butches, and readers consistently recommend it as one of the few butch/butch romances available. The conflict is built on both women expecting to date a femme.
How spicy is Desperate Times?
A 4/5. romance.io has no steam band for it yet, but the author promises no-holds-barred carnality and readers describe the scenes as explicit, frequent and sometimes rough. It is one of the steamier books in our butch/butch list.
Does Desperate Times have a happy ending?
Yes, Tess and Sidney end up together. The reconciliation after the third-act crisis is brief, so the ending reads closer to happy-for-now than a fully sealed happily-ever-after, and at least one detailed review found it unsatisfying.
Is there an audiobook of Desperate Times?
Yes. The audiobook is narrated by Marie Smith, released in March 2019 and runs 7 hours 9 minutes. One reader says the narration makes Tess easier to like; it is on Audible but not on Libro.fm.
Is Desperate Times part of a series?
No. It is a standalone published by the author’s own Barachou Press in 2018, and it needs no other book to follow.
If You Loved Desperate Times, Read These Next
For another butch/butch small-town romance with more warmth and a gentler lead, Touch the Sky is the closest match at the same heat. If the frank negotiation of masculine-of-centre roles in bed is what grabbed you, Stud Like Her brings the same dynamic to a stud/stud pairing, just as explicitly. And for a softer butch/butch story about two older women finally acting on years of pining, Wherever Is Your Heart trades the bite for tenderness.
For more in this register, browse our butch/butch lesbian romance guide or the full Book Reviews collection.
The Bottom Line
Desperate Times tries something most sapphic romance won’t: two butch women, no femme to fall back on, in a town that would rather they didn’t exist. The pairing is rare, the heat is real, and the humour gives it a bite that keeps the pages turning. It is also built around a heroine many readers find hard to like, gives her less growth than her walls demand, and hurries past its most painful moment. Whether that trade works depends on your patience with Tess — but if you have been waiting for butch/butch on the page, it is worth the risk. Check Desperate Times on Amazon →
The Eikna Overall Ranking
On the Eikna scale, Desperate Times ranks as a rare, heat-forward indie butch/butch small-town romance — funny, frank and genuinely sexy, held back by a hard-to-love lead and a rushed reconciliation, and best approached for the pairing and the heat rather than a tidy emotional arc.
The Evidence Scorecard
Overall ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ 3.95 average across 212 Goodreads ratings
- ✓ Recommended again and again for butch/butch
- ✓ Tess drives most low ratings and one DNF
Romance ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ Bad first date to lovers, genuinely fresh
- ✓ Bickering chemistry readers find hot and funny
- ✓ Sidney’s patience praised as the relationship’s anchor
- ✓ Some readers never saw why they fit
Characters ★★★☆☆ 3.4/5
- ✓ Sidney liked even by critical readers
- ✓ Tess’s closet rooted in real stakes
- ✓ A minority say Tess grows the most
- ✓ Tess widely called rude and unlikeable
Writing ★★★★☆ 3.8/5
- ✓ Sarcastic humour praised across reviews
- ✓ Clean editing, even per critical readers
- ✓ Inner monologues a repeated highlight
- ✓ Vocal reviewer found the first half whiny
Emotional Impact ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ Closeted small-town life rings true
- ✓ One butch reader saw herself in it
- ✓ Outing gives the stakes real weight
- ✓ Aftermath resolved too quickly for some
Heat Level ★★★★☆ 4/5
- ✓ Author promises no-holds-barred carnality
- ✓ Explicit, varied, frequent per readers
- ✓ Power struggle over who leads
- ✓ No romance.io steam band yet
Ending ★★★☆☆ 3.2/5
- ✓ Couple ends together, no cliffhanger
- ✓ Epilogue helps Tess’s arc land for one reader
- ✓ Standalone, nothing left hanging
- ✓ Lesbrary calls the reconciliation unsatisfying
Re-read Value ★★★★☆ 3.7/5
- ✓ One reader lists it as a re-read
- ✓ Marie Smith audiobook, 7 hrs 9 mins
- ✓ Audio edition rated 4.3 on Audible
- ✓ Tess’s abrasiveness discourages a second pass
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