Hi reader, welcome to the first Sapphic Weekly: three books worth your time, the news, and what’s coming out. Every Thursday, one email.
Three books to read this week
- Purposefully Accidental by G. Benson (our rating: 4.4/5). An A-list actress lands in the ER of the doctor she humiliated at summer camp when they were nine. Funny, grief-aware and one of the most loved celebrity romances in the genre.
- Touchwood by Karin Kallmaker (our rating: 4.2/5). A true classic: a young woodcarver and a closeted bookshop owner in her fifties. A tender, sensual slow burn that still holds up more than thirty years on.
- How You Get the Girl by Anita Kelly (our rating: 4.2/5). A high school basketball coach who has never dated falls for the former WNBA star she idolised as a teen. Soft, funny and generous.
News
- Bold Strokes drops five new romances today direct from the publisher, including Art of the Deal (Morgan Adams), Pretty Girl (Taylor J. Brown) and the witchy enemies-to-lovers This Spells Forever (Melissa Sky). Amazon gets them on October 13.
- Kat Dunn is back. She won this year’s Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction for Hungerstone, and her gothic Hamlet retelling Rottenheart arrives in the US on October 13.
- New on the site: Books Like Heated Rivalry and our Sapphic Hockey Romance list, just in time for hockey season.
Out this week and coming soon
- Out now: Breadknives and Boomsticks by Marie Cardno, a cosy fantasy about a half-troll monster hunter stuck running a bakery; All’s Fair in Love and Duty by Sarah Jacklin & Phoebe Rose, two best friends and one heiress. Also out today: There’s a Ghost Girl in My House by Sophie Mutiara Nova, a gentle gothic novella, and Hoochie Daddy Diaries by Alori Moore, explicit stud/femme short stories.
- Oct 3: Looking for Her by J. Victoria Tobias, self-published romantic suspense with a missing wife who may not stay missing. Plus House of the Iron Reaper by Storm Lomax, a Cinderella retelling in which a dragon from a failing House fights through a deadly tournament.
- Oct 5: The Crucible by Aoibh Wood, a 524-page dark academia romantasy set in a military school.
- Oct 6: Rose Tremain’s The Housekeeper and the ballet horror debut The Finalist. See all of October’s releases.
That’s it for this week. See you next Thursday.
Happy reading,
Lesbian Romance Reads