Home › Books Like… › Books Like Sunburn
For readers still thinking about Lucy and Charlotte.
18 verified books · 0 new to LRR · 18 LRR reviewed · 13 L1–L3 · 4 explicit · 7 with a confirmed HEA or HFN
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If Sunburn stayed with you because of its longing, secrecy, place and emotional intensity, the best next read is not necessarily another book with the same plot. This list matches the parts readers want again: a relationship that feels consuming, a world that makes desire difficult, a strong sense of place, coming of age, and prose that gives the romance room to ache.
Each recommendation says what it shares with Sunburn, and what it does not. Literary novels, romances and historical stories all belong here, so check the ending label if you need a happy one: Sunburn itself is bittersweet.
Quick answer
Start with Heap Earth Upon It (same author, same rural Ireland), The Miseducation of Cameron Post (small-town, religious pressure, first love) or Last Night at the Telegraph Club (secret first love, historical). Want more romance and a happier ending? Try Forget Me Not or Atmosphere.
| What Sunburn has | What we matched on |
|---|---|
| Longing and pining | A relationship that aches before, or instead of, resolving. |
| Secret or constrained love | Family, faith, a small town or the times make it impossible to be open. |
| Coming of age | A girl working out who she is and what she wants. |
| Strong sense of place | A specific town or community that shapes the story. |
| Literary voice | Prose-first storytelling rather than genre beats. |
Closest Matches to Sunburn
Six books that share the most with Sunburn, each with what it shares and how it differs.
First row: why the book fits, its ending and its heat. Second row: extra labels, and whether the book is new to LRR.
Every card names its source: our review, or the publisher description.
Heat and endings appear only when confirmed.
Heap Earth Upon It
Chloe Michelle Howarth
Anna O’Leary & Betty Nevan — a young woman’s consuming fixation on her married, older neighbour
Why start here: Same author, same rural Irish world: desire that has nowhere safe to go, told with the same close, aching intensity.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
Malinda Lo
Lily Hu & Kathleen “Kath” Miller — classmates who find the same advertisement, friends to lovers
Why start here: A teenage girl discovers who she is in a place and time that will not allow it. Secret first love, strong sense of 1950s San Francisco.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
emily m. danforth
Cameron Post & Coley Taylor — best friends sliding into a secret first love, with Coley’s boyfriend in the way
Why start here: Small-town, religious pressure and a girl who cannot stop wanting her best friend. The closest American cousin to Sunburn.
Annie on My Mind
Nancy Garden
Liza Winthrop & Annie Kenyon — private-school class president and public-school dreamer, friends-to-lovers
Why start here: The classic first-love story under social pressure. Gentler than Sunburn, with a hopeful ending.
Carol (The Price of Salt)
Patricia Highsmith
Therese Belivet & Carol Aird — a nineteen-year-old shopgirl and a woman in her thirties mid-divorce
Why start here: Hidden love and social risk in 1950s America, written with restraint and longing.
The Safekeep
Yael van der Wouden
Isabel & Eva — a woman who counts the spoons and the guest she is certain is stealing them
Why start here: Literary, atmospheric and simmering: a woman’s rigid life upended by desire she has never allowed herself.
Closest Matches
The books that share the most with Sunburn.
If You Want More Literary
5 literary books with the same emotional weight.
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Jeanette Winterson
Jeanette & Melanie — a teenage evangelical preacher and the girl she brings to church, first love
Evidence: LRR review
“Verdict: A sharp, funny, genuinely strange coming-of-age novel about a girl raised for the pulpit who falls for another girl, held back for a sizeable minority of readers by the fable interludes that break up the story.” Source → Heat: existing LRR data (P4/P6/page tags/review facts). Ending: LRR review: a lesbian first love at its centre, and there is no happily-ever-after. / Quiet, ambivalent close .
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Marianne & Héloïse — painter and reluctant subject
Evidence: LRR review
“Verdict: The modern gold standard of sapphic yearning — a restrained, painterly 18th-century love story that turns looking itself into romance.” Source → Heat: existing LRR data (P4/P6/page tags/review facts). Ending: LRR review: No — it's bittersweet by design. The lovers part.
If You Want More Historical
7 books set in a past that makes the love harder.
Tipping the Velvet
Sarah Waters
Oyster-girl Nan & music-hall star Kitty (and others across Nan’s journey)
Evidence: LRR review
“Best for: Readers who want an epic Victorian coming-of-age, a heroine who reinvents herself again and again, gender-play and cross-dressing, and a story that is as much about self-discovery as it is about love.” Source → Heat: existing LRR data (P4/P6/page tags/review facts). Ending: LRR review: the journey is bittersweet and often dark, but the novel builds toward a hopeful, hard-won sense o.
Learned by Heart
Eliza Raine & a young Anne Lister (based on real history)
Evidence: LRR review
“ Verdict: A luminous, bittersweet work of literary historical fiction based on a true first love.” Source → Heat: existing LRR data (P4/P6/page tags/review facts). Ending: LRR review: The novel is bittersweet and elegiac, staying true to a difficult real history rather than offerin.
Odd Girl Out
Ann Bannon
Laura Landon & Beth Cullison — shy freshman and confident older sorority sister, a secret first love
Evidence: LRR review
“Best for: Readers who want to hold a piece of lesbian literary history in their hands, who can read a book as a document of its decade, and who care more about the ache of first love than a happy ending.” Source → Heat: existing LRR data (P4/P6/page tags/review facts). Ending: LRR review (corrects earlier derived value): Not a romantic one. Beth chooses Charlie, and Laura is left alone.
If You Want More Romance
5 romance-first books with the longing and secrecy, and happier endings.
Atmosphere
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Joan Goodwin & Vanessa Ford — astronomer and mission specialist, hidden inside 1980s NASA
Evidence: LRR review
“Atmosphere: A Love Story is Taylor Jenkins Reid's 2025 novel, published by Ballantine in June, and it is the single most-read book on this site's sapphic fiction list by an order of magnitude.” Source → Heat: existing LRR data (P4/P6/page tags/review facts). Ending: LRR review: It has a happy ending, and no — she survives. … both women are alive and together at the end..
Forget Me Not
Alyson Derrick
Stevie & Nora — secret girlfriends of two years, second chance after one forgets
Evidence: LRR review
“Verdict: A sapphic YA amnesia romance with near-unanimous emotional force and a small-town Pennsylvania setting of real specificity, let down by an ending that arrives too fast.” Source → Heat: existing LRR data (P4/P6/page tags/review facts). Ending: LRR review: It is a standalone with a complete arc and a happily-ever-after.
Those Who Wait
Haley Cass
Sutton & Charlotte — grad student and closeted deputy mayor, friends-to-lovers
Evidence: LRR review
“Verdict: A self-published sapphic slow-burn friends-to-lovers romance with genuinely charged chemistry and a closeted-politician subplot that raises the stakes, held back by a length even its biggest fans keep asking an ” Source → Heat: existing LRR data (P4/P6/page tags/review facts). Ending: LRR review: Sutton and Charlotte's story resolves completely, with an earned HEA and an extended epilogue nove.
Our Secret Summer
Harper Bliss
Dylan French (59, mother of Raffo’s best friend) & Raffo (early 30s, painter)
Evidence: LRR review
“Setting: The summer lake-house atmosphere suits the story.” Source → Heat: existing LRR data (P4/P6/page tags/review facts).
All the Worlds Between Us
Morgan Lee Miller
Quinn Hughes (elite swimmer) & Kennedy Reed (former best friend), both 17
Evidence: LRR review
“Verdict: An emotional, angst-heavy queer YA debut about an out teen swimmer and the closeted ex-best friend who gave her a first kiss.” Source → Ending: LRR review: Not a neat one. Readers describe an open ending that surprised them; a sequel continues Quinn and .
How LRR Verifies These Books
Every book here has been reviewed on LRR. We matched on the qualities readers name most in Sunburn (longing, secrecy, coming of age, place and literary voice) and label two to four shared qualities per book. Endings and heat come from our reviews.
Complete Collection
All 18 verified books, each listed once. Tap a filter to narrow the table.
18 of 18 books shown
| Book | Why it fits | Heat | Ending | LRR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annie on My Mind Nancy Garden | Coming of age, Secret or constrained love, First love | L1 · No on-page sex | HFN | Review |
| Carol (The Price of Salt) Patricia Highsmith | Secret or constrained love, Longing, Literary, Historical | L1 · No on-page sex | HFN | Review |
| Heap Earth Upon It Chloe Michelle Howarth | Closest match, Strong sense of place, Literary, Secret or constrained love | L2 · Closed door | Ending unverified | Review |
| Last Night at the Telegraph Club Malinda Lo | Closest match, Coming of age, Secret or constrained love, Historical | L2 · Closed door | Bittersweet | Review |
| The Miseducation of Cameron Post emily m. danforth | Closest match, Coming of age, Strong sense of place, Secret or constrained love | L3 · Open door | Unconventional ending | Review |
| The Safekeep Yael van der Wouden | Longing, Secret or constrained love, Literary, Historical | L4 · Explicit | HEA | Review |
| All the Worlds Between Us Morgan Lee Miller | More romance, First love, Secret or constrained love | Heat not rated | Series continues | Review |
| Atmosphere Taylor Jenkins Reid | More romance, Secret or constrained love, Longing | L3 · Open door | HEA | Review |
| Far From You Tess Sharpe | Secret or constrained love, Coming of age, First love | L2 · Closed door | Tragic | Review |
| Forget Me Not Alyson Derrick | More romance, Secret or constrained love, Strong sense of place | L2 · Closed door | HEA | Review |
| Learned by Heart | Coming of age, Longing, Historical, First love | L1 · No on-page sex | Bittersweet | Review |
| Odd Girl Out Ann Bannon | Secret or constrained love, Coming of age, Historical | L1 · No on-page sex | Bittersweet | Review |
| Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Jeanette Winterson | Coming of age, Strong sense of place, Literary, Secret or constrained love | L1 · No on-page sex | Unconventional ending | Review |
| Our Secret Summer Harper Bliss | More romance, Secret or constrained love | L4 · Explicit | Ending unverified | Review |
| Portrait of a Lady on Fire | Longing, Secret or constrained love, Literary, Historical | L2 · Closed door | Bittersweet | Review |
| The Weight of the Stars K. Ancrum | Longing, Coming of age, First love | L1 · No on-page sex | Bittersweet | Review |
| Those Who Wait Haley Cass | More romance, Longing, Secret or constrained love | L4 · Explicit | HEA | Review |
| Tipping the Velvet Sarah Waters | Coming of age, Historical, First love | L4 · Explicit | HFN | Review |
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I read after Sunburn?
For the closest match, Heap Earth Upon It by the same author. For another small-town coming-of-age, The Miseducation of Cameron Post.
Is Sunburn a romance?
It is a literary coming-of-age novel with a central sapphic love story and a bittersweet ending. Most books here are labelled with their ending so you can choose.
Are there books like Sunburn with a happy ending?
Yes. See the “If You Want More Romance” shelf, or filter the table by HEA/HFN confirmed.
Why are some of these books not romances?
Because what readers loved in Sunburn is literary longing and constraint. Each card is labelled literary or romance.
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