Before we get to the books, here’s some history. Since 2004, International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia falls on May 17. As of 2016, commemorations have taken place in over 130 countries. Why does it fall on this particular day in May? On May 17, 1990 the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization removed homosexuality as a mental disorder.

The I Heart SapphFic team is dedicated to diversity and doing our part to stamp out hate. To honor International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia we asked authors to submit books that feature bi/pan/sapphic trans characters and/or deal with homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia.

Please help support the authors below.

Not the Marrying Kind

by Jae

Can a closeted florist and a too-busy-for-a-relationship bakery owner mix up the perfect recipe for love in this lesbian small-town romance?

Small-town florist Ashley Gaines loves her little flower shop and putting together the perfect bouquets for weddings and other happy occasions. Her own love life, however, is far from blossoming. Ash has decided that staying in the closet is safer than risking her heart again.

Local bakery owner Sasha Peterson hasn’t had much luck mixing it up with romance either. Besides, she’s too busy whipping up delicious treats to have time for a relationship.

But when their town’s first lesbian wedding forces them to work together, Ashley and Sasha discover they have more in common than they imagined.

During food fights, cake tastings, and slow waltzes, they begin to see each other in a new light. Soon Ashley has to admit to herself that Sasha is tempting more than just her sweet tooth.

The book is a small-town romance with a pansexual main character and a closeted lesbian main character who’s afraid of how her family, friends, and customers will react if she were to come out.

Out on the Ice

by Kelly Farmer

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Caro Cassidy used to be a legend.

During her career, Caro was one of the best defense players in women’s hockey. These days, she keeps to herself. Her all-girls hockey camp is her life, and she hopes it’ll be her legacy. Sure, her new summer hire is charming and magnetic, but Caro keeps her work and personal life strictly separate.

Amy Schwarzbach lives life out loud.

Amy’s as bright and cheerful as her lavender hair, and she uses her high-profile position in women’s hockey to advocate for the things she believes in. Ten weeks in Chicago coaching a girls’ training camp is the perfect opportunity to mentor the next generation before she goes back to Boston.

Letting love in means putting yourself out there.

When the reticent head coach offers to help Amy get in shape for next season, her starstruck crush on Caro quickly blossoms into real chemistry. As summer comes to an end, neither of them can quite let go of this fling—but Amy can’t afford a distraction, and Caro can’t risk her relationship becoming public and jeopardizing the one thing that’s really hers.

The novel deals with homophobia and biphobia and has a bisexual main character.

Come Away with Me

by Rachel Lacey

Available in Kindle Unlimited

A television star and a flight attendant walk into a bar…

Six months after a traumatic event left actress Piper Sheridan confined to her apartment with debilitating panic attacks, she’s determined to start living her life again. Motivated by an upcoming audition, she summons her courage and goes out for a drink, keeping her identity under wraps. It sounds simple enough, but nothing about going out in public is easy for Piper these days. And her hopes of going unnoticed are stymied by the bubbly blonde on the next barstool.

Flight attendant Chloe Carson is only in New York for the night, and she’s only looking for a little casual fun to go with her cocktail. The mysterious woman beside her isn’t fun, exactly…but she’s intriguing. And beautiful. Even without knowing her name, Chloe is drawn to her. When they share an unexpectedly intimate moment, Chloe knows this is a night she’ll never forget.

Can these two strangers turn a chance encounter into something lasting?

The novel features a bisexual heroine.

No Rings Attached

by Rachel Lacey

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Lia Harris is tired of being the odd one out. She’s never quite fit in with her uptight family, and now that her roommates have all found love, she’s starting to feel like a third wheel in her own apartment. Fed up with her mother’s constant meddling in her love life, Lia drops hints about a girlfriend she doesn’t have. But with her brother’s London nuptials approaching, she needs to find a date to save face. Lia turns to her best friend, Rosie, for help, and Rosie delivers—with the fun, gorgeous Grace Poston.

Grace loves to have a good time, hiding her insecurities behind a sunny smile. Her recent move to London has provided her with a much-needed fresh start. Grace isn’t looking for love, and she hates weddings, having weathered more than her fair share of heartache. Friendships are different, though, so for Rosie’s sake, she reluctantly agrees to pose as Lia’s adoring girlfriend for the wedding festivities.

Both Grace and Lia are prepared for an awkward weekend, complete with prying family members and a guest room with only one bed. As it turns out, they get along well—spectacularly, in fact. Before they know it, the chemistry they’re faking feels all too real. But is their wedding weekend a fleeting performance or the rehearsal for a love that’s meant to last?

The novel features a bisexual heroine.

Never the Same

by Michele L. Rivera

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Paige Galner is known around campus as the authority on gay girl issues, blogging exclusively for lesbians. Extremely vocal about her dislike of bisexuals, Paige never stops to consider who her words are hurting. But that all changes when she meets freshman Lennox Hansford.

At first, Paige tries to deny her attraction to the captivating, openly bisexual woman for fear that her followers will think she’s a hypocrite. Only the more Paige gets to know Lennox, the more she begins to question her personal biases.

Their chemistry may be undeniable, but it won’t lead to anything…unless Paige can learn how to overcome her pride.

Will Lennox be the person who can teach Paige that real love does not discriminate?

A note from the author: I purposely created a not-so-likeable, lesbian MC who seriously needed to be schooled on how biphobic she is and when she falls for an openly (very likeable) bisexual woman who challenges her, that schooling happens.

The Headmistress

by Milena McKay

Available in Kindle Unlimited

A chance encounter. An unforgettable night.

And back home, trouble is brewing on the remote island of Three Dragons, where nothing feels like it used to. Alone and lonely, Sam Threadneedle wishes upon a star, hoping for change. But when said change comes, it’s with a roar and not a whimper.

Torn between loyalty and lust, Sam is forced to re-evaluate everything.

Can she and the Home of Dragons withstand the storm that is Magdalene Nox, or will any and all crumble?

Not everything is as it seems, and as she slowly unravels the mysteries behind the centuries-old walls, Sam realizes that home is much more than oak and stone.

The novel deals with homophobia and transphobia in a school setting.

Graffiti Red Murder

by Alexi Venice

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Recharged from a romantic spring break, Attorney Monica Spade is hired to represent a plastic surgeon whose patients are being murdered and spray-painted with a sinister message.

An impending deadline forces Monica to take matters into her own hands, so she dives into the serial murder case, dissecting clues from surgeries, chasing down leads from smarmy nightclubs, and drawing criticism from the police for interfering.

In her personal life, Monica discovers her fiancée, Shelby St. Claire, hanging out with a former flame, Coco Rivelli, the yogi sensation. Can Monica keep a lid on her hot temper when provoked by Coco?

Fighting for life and love during a pandemic, Monica transforms her legal practice into an action-packed, killer ride through the lake country north of Apple Grove, Wisconsin.

The novel shines the spotlight on violence against trans women and explains gender-affirming surgeries.

The Lesbian and The Homophobic President

by Judy Ramsook

Available in Kindle Unlimited

So many times life pulls its stunt on us and the unexpected cut across the plan. We are kept in a fix and a decision is paramount. Will power overthrow love? What happens to the undefined affection between Kelly and Jackie? Find out the answers to these questions from this intriguing plight of Jackie, Kelly and the Homophobic president. Will Jackie find a decision to surmount her elevated mountain of two-ended choices? Is Kelly truly a bad influence as thought by many? Will the president put his familiarity with Kelly on the line?

The novel deals with homophobia.

Betting on Love

by Alyssa Linn Palmer

Land poor, Elly leaves the family farm and heads to the big city to become something better than a waitress in a small-town diner. Though she’s succumbed to economic necessity and the siren song of her one-time lover, Alex, she can’t bear to give up the farm that has been in her family for generations. As much as she wants to, she can’t have everything she desires, and she’ll have to decide what is more important: the past or the future.

Alex has always been a daredevil, up for anything, never tying herself down to anyone. When she falls head over heels for quiet Elly, everyone’s surprised, no one more than her best friend and occasional lover, Will. As things heat up between them, Elly must choose between her past and her future, and Alex is faced with a decision that will shake her to the core of all she holds dear.

The novel features a bisexual heroine.

Midnight at the Orpheus

by Alyssa Linn Palmer

Chicago, the Roaring Twenties. Cecilia Mills is new to town and struggling to survive. Her world is turned upside down when she falls for gangster Franky Greco’s moll Nell Prescott. Working at The Orpheus dance hall thanks to Nell, Cecilia becomes known as CeeCee and rubs elbows with gangsters and the city’s elite, and she and Nell hide their affair from Greco.

Patrick Sheridan is fresh out of prison and bent on revenge, with Greco in the crosshairs. He gets a job as CeeCee’s bodyguard, and despite her infatuation with Nell, love blossoms between CeeCee and Sheridan. When Sheridan sees his chance, thanks to a disillusioned cop seeking his own revenge, he must choose where his loyalties lie as CeeCee and Nell are caught in the middle.

Stars a bisexual heroine, CeeCee, and a bisexual love interest, Nell.

The Amnesia Project

by Barbara Winkes

Available in Kindle Unlimited

What happened behind these doors?

In the summer of 2003, three young women and a teenage girl take a trip to New York City. Only three of them return.

Paige’s disappearance marks deep incisions in the women’s lives, impacting friendships, relationships and careers. Joy retreats. Paige’s older sister Alice seeks solace in alcohol. Dani vows to leave no stone unturned, feeling guilty and conflicted after seventeen-year-old Paige revealed her crush to her shortly before she vanished.

More than a decade later, Dani uncovers the shocking truth…

The book deals with homophobia. 

Instead of Happy

by Jamey Moody

Available in Kindle Unlimited

They were meant to be until hate tried to destroy their magical love.

Their families had been intertwined for years and they’d “heard” of one another, but when they met, Lovers Landing put a spell on them like no other.

Sure Jennifer had never been with a woman and Courtney up and moved to Houston to get a teaching job near them, no problem there. Who cares if Jennifer happens to be more than a few years older than Courtney and has two young sons.

Jennifer and her boys were completely enchanted and Courtney couldn’t get enough of them.

When Courtney’s integrity comes under fire they’ll need their Lovers Landing family more than ever. But is this magical love strong enough to battle the evil of hate? And can their family withstand the scrutiny of perception?

The novel has a bisexual character.

Testimony

by Paula Martinac

In rural Virginia in 1960, history professor Gen Rider has secured tenure at Baines College, a private school for white women. A woman in a man’s field, she teaches “Negro” history, which has made her suspect with a powerful male colleague. Even while she’s celebrating her triumph, she’s also mourning the break-up of a long-distance relationship with another woman—a romance she has tightly guarded, even from her straight female mentor.

As the fall semester dawns, a male instructor at the college is arrested for having sex with a man in a park. Homosexual panic envelops the college town, launching a “Know Your Neighbor” reporting campaign. The police investigation directly threatens Gen’s friend Fenton, the gay theater director at Baines. But Gen finds herself vulnerable, too, when someone leaves mysterious “gifts” for her, including a suggestive pulp novel and a romantic card.

As Gen tentatively embarks on a new relationship, a neighbor reports she’s seen Gen kissing a woman, and hearings into her morality catch her in a McCarthy-like web. With her private life under the microscope, Gen faces an agonizing choice: Which does she value more, the career she’s scraped to build against the odds or her right to a private life?

The novel deals with homophobia and its consequences in the work place. 

A Wish Upon a Star

by Jeannie Levig

Leslie Raymond spent the past two years wishing her life had taken a different turn. It’s time for a fresh start, a move across the country, and a new set of rules to help heal her heart—no straight women, no women with kids, and no commitment. But when she meets her new neighbors, the beautiful Erica and her special needs daughter, Siena, she struggles against the pull she immediately experiences.

Erica Cooper has learned to rely only on herself. She knows most people don’t stick around when the going gets tough. And when caring for child with autism, the going can get tough fast. She is content with the quiet and emotionally safe life she’s constructed, but when they are befriended by their kind, playful, and—damn it—really hot new neighbor, the walls protecting her heart threaten to crumble.

So much for good intentions and firm resolutions–neither stand a chance when the stars align for love.

The novel features two bisexual characters. 

Into Thin Air

by Jeannie Levig

Hannah Lewis’s life is exactly where she thinks it should be. But when her girlfriend, Jordan, disappears into thin air and she and Jordan’s best friend, Nikki, are drawn closer in the search, she discovers that lovers can be strangers and perceived knowledge just as illusory. The more she learns, the less she seems to know, and the more she discovers about herself.

Jordan Webber, a civil rights attorney, emotional economist, and failed monogamist, has her secrets, but none of them account for the sudden turn her life takes as she is ripped away from everything she knows. In a struggle for her sanity, she is forced to confront who she has been and decide if that is still who she wants to be. When they come together again, can anything ever be the same?

The novel deals with homophobia.

The Spy and Her Serpent

by Maria Ying

Olesya Hua, narcotics empress

…has everything: power, wealth, and a city that’ll soon be hers. But her hunger is endless. She covets more still—and what Olesya Hua wants, she always gets.

Dallas Seidel, syndicate fixer

…lost her chosen family to bloody violence ordered by the Huas. She’ll stop at nothing to avenge them—she’ll stop at nothing until the Hua sisters are in the ground.

Their goals are in brutal opposition. Deceit and plots-within-plots will put them at each other’s throat. They careen toward not just mutually assured destruction, but toward a fatal passion that’ll mark them both forever.

The Spy and Her Serpent is a trans-for-trans F/F short novel set in contemporary Singapore.

Someone Else’s Shoes

by Aldrea Alien

Stepping out in borrowed shoes has never been so dangerous.

Stripped of her inheritance as a child by a greedy stepmother, Alla’s future hovers between drudgery and slavery. Having spent years toiling in the mansion that was once her happy home, tending to her stepmother’s every whim, she has long since put aside any thoughts of a better future.

When a chance encounter in the marketplace leaves her with an invitation to the upcoming ball, her only opportunity to play out an old dream of seeing inside the palace walls is by being someone she’s not. A farce that could see her executed or sold.

But will she be able to maintain the illusion once she meets Princess Viktoriya?

Someone Else’s Shoes features a sapphic trans woman as the love interest and rescuer of the MC.

Get It Right

by Skye Kilaen

Available in Kindle Unlimited

A butch lesbian parolee. The pretty pansexual nurse who got away. Is this their second chance at a happily ever after?

Finn is finally out of prison, which is great. Having no job, no car, and no place to sleep except her cousin’s couch? Not so great.

Plus, her felony theft conviction isn’t doing wonders for her employment prospects, so she can’t afford her migraine meds without the public clinic. The last thing she ever expected was for the gal who stole her heart to come walking down that clinic’s hallway: Vivi, the manicure-loving nurse who spent two years fighting the prison system to get proper medical care for her patients, including Finn.

Finn could never believe she imagined the attraction and affection between them. But acting on that in prison, especially as nurse and patient, had been a serious No Way. She’s had eight months to get over Vivi, who abruptly left her job without saying goodbye. Finn is over it. Honest! It’s totally and completely fine.

Except Vivi, here and now, doesn’t seem fine. And Finn couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t try to help.

Is fate offering Finn a second chance? Or is finding love as likely as finding a job with health insurance?

Vivi is pan and Finn is a lesbian. Both experience family rejection.

If I Were A Weapon

by Skye Kilaen

Available in Kindle Unlimited

See the future. Set things on fire. Fall in love? A superpowered sci-fi romance.

When dying alien ships materialized across the Earth, their nanite infection knocked Deneve Wilder out cold. She woke up with the ability to see the future. Determined to keep anyone from using her visions for evil, she took to the road. Giving up everything was a small price to pay for freedom.

The ship that hit Jolie Betancourt’s town gave her the power to set things on fire. It was safer to start over in a new city. Then one terrible mistake demonstrated far too clearly that for her, solitude is safer. For everyone.

So when Deneve shows up after a vision of Jolie being kidnapped, Jolie wants little to do with the frustratingly attractive drifter. Deneve’s surprised by how much she wants to thaw the pretty shopkeeper’s chilly attitude, but the idea of staying in one place sets off her alarm bells.

If they can’t evade whoever’s abducting people with powers, however, the growing connection they both feel anyway might be the least of their problems.

Both Deneve and Jolie are bi/pan.

On the Square

by Brenda Murphy

Dropped from her television show after a very public split with her cheating ex, celebrity chef Mai Li wants nothing more than to reopen her parents’ shuttered restaurant and make a fresh start in her former hometown. So what if twenty years of neglect has left the building in need of a major renovation?

Seduced by Mai’s charm and determination, hard-edged contractor Dale Miller agrees to take on her renovation project.

After a spring storm causes significant damage to the building and renovation costs exceed Mai’s budget, Dale offers her a deal, but is it a price Mai is willing to pay?

The novel deals with homophobia. 

Unexpected Departure

by Shannon O’Connor

Riley is stuck —in a job she hates, a toxic relationship, and in life. She knows the relationship is bad for her, but she also can’t seem to let her go. After catching her girlfriend cheating, again, she finds comfort at her favorite bar, with her best friend by her side.

After punching someone in the face and meeting a mysteriously gorgeous bartender, Riley thinks things may be changing. Sawyer is adventurous, sexy, and confident— all the things Riley yearns to be. And a sunrise motorcycle ride starts to give her hope that things can change.

When she suddenly gets a phone call from her brother, she discovers her estranged mother is dying. After almost a decade of silence, she’s forced to return to her small homophobic hometown, say goodbye, and confront her demons.

Will she be able to confront her past, learn to move on, and learn to love herself?

The novel deals with homophobia.

Love Set in Granite

by Amy DeMeritt

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Sidney – Sid – Taranto had planned on never returning to the small town of her youth – Granite, Pennsylvania, a never-heard-of town with a heart just as hard as its name. But after her mother passes away, and after licking her wounds from a bitter divorce, it’s time for Sid to deal with the family home.

After years of deferred maintenance, the once beautiful country home looks more like a giant pile of kindling to the angst Sid bears for the past it represents. But after running into her first love – Chloe Macintyre and her teenage kid, who’s looking for a summer job, Sid decides to keep the flame in her chest, and hires Brook to help her get the house ready to go on the market.

It’s been twenty-two years since they’ve seen each other, but that torch Sid and Chloe held for one another in high school never fully extinguished, and they are just as attracted to each other as ever before. But Sid’s contracting business and home are two-plus-hours away in Philadelphia. And Chloe has her own dental practice in Granite.

If they start dating, how long can they make a long-distance relationship last before they have to make a serious decision?

And Chloe has never come out of the closet as bisexual, even after Brook told her the year prior that they’re non-binary. The fear of what happened to Sid in high school has always stuck with her. Can she get over that fear, accept herself, and build the life with Sid that she had always wanted?

The novel has bisexual representation and deals with homophobia / biphobia.

She Became My Water

by Amy DeMeritt

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Piper hasn’t had the best luck with love – rather, she tends to fall for unavailable women – her coworker for one, and an anonymous blogger for another.

In walks Bailey – a new weekly patron of the coffee shop Piper works at. She’s a beautiful woman with a shy closed-lip smile that makes Piper want to know everything about her.

To do that, and to give herself a real shot at love, she has to cut the digital heartstrings to the blogger she’s been obsessing over for three years.

But when the anonymous blogger decides to strip her digital mask, revealing her true identity, the surprise unveiling is shocking and life changing. Piper realizes that even a lesbian can learn a few things about gender identity and sexuality.

The novel deals with biphobia and includes sapphic trans representation.

Liquid Courage

by Stephanie Shea

Alexandria Van Kirk has always been a slave to her romantic nature. When a night of liquid courage lands her in bed with one of her best friends, Alex is confronted by a host of feelings that terrify her. Feelings about her friend and, unexpectedly, a barista from her favorite café.

It’s a tug of war between heart and body. Desire against all her daydreams of someone to share silence, sunsets, and coffee with.

But Alex’s past is also about to catch up with her. Tortured memories and the girl they’re all about. It’s like fighting the pull of a whirlwind. A surefire losing battle. But embracing a newfound romance amid the return of an old flame is a precarious balance, one not even Alex herself is sure she can manage.

How the hell does she choose between the girl she loves and the one she could never confess loving to begin with?

The novel features a bisexual sapphic MC and deals with homophobia.

Chef’s Kiss

by Stephanie Shea

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Valentina Rosas has always known what she wants. Mostly. Sort of. At least, she does now. And what she wants is the coveted staging role at Gia, San Francisco. With four years at the top of her class in culinary school and enough tenacity to fuel the entire Mission, no one doubts she is about to land the job of her dreams—including the three-person cheer squad made up of her best friend and adorably overbearing parents.

Renowned chef Jenn Coleman is not a people person. Her rise to the top of the culinary industry stems from a cultivated blend of top-tier schooling—from her nonna—and bouts of carefully managed misanthropy. Owning and operating two Michelin starred restaurants doesn’t leave time for much else anyway. Just ask her ex.

When the new stage at her restaurant trips into her with all the grace of a baby giraffe, it’s a sure recipe for disaster. But for all of Jenn’s reserve, Valentina has twice the allure, and the chemistry between them is just… chef’s kiss.

If only Jenn wasn’t Valentina’s boss with nearly ten years between them.

The novel features a bisexual sapphic MC.

Investigating Helen

by Benna Bos

Dr. Helen Nims is hauled into the police station when her new girlfriend is found murdered. Terrified and confused, she finds comfort from a stranger. But when that stranger turns out to be a crime reporter, Helen has to decide if she can be trusted or if confiding in the stunning podcaster will pull Helen deeper into suspicion.

Agnes Coates loves reporting on true crime. But it hits a little close to home when her first crush from high school is found dead in a bathtub. A gorgeous surgeon is tangled up in the police dragnet as they search for the killer, and Agnes must navigate her own feelings as she digs into the mystery and seeks out the truth.

With so much to lose, Agnes and Helen will walk the line between kisses and crime.

The novel has Sapphic Bisexual Characters.

Playing Catch-Up

by Zoey Lennox

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Twenty-three-year-old Alexis Lenz’s life is a mess: she hates her job, has lost touch with most of her friends, and her love life is non-existent.

When she meets LGBTQ youth counsellor Ramie Ramirez at a dinner party, sparks fly. But Ramie is still putting herself back together after an acrimonious split from her long-term girlfriend and is only looking for something casual. If living with the repercussions of her ex’s lies has taught her one thing, it’s to keep her heart locked up tight.

As the two women begin to date, Alexis finds herself in a predicament. She’s never dated a woman before and is afraid Ramie will dump her sorry arse once she finds out.

What’s a girl to do? A little white lie can’t hurt, can it? It’s not like they’re going to do something stupid like fall in love…

The novel deals with homophobia.

Girl Love Happens

by TB Markinson

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Two college roommates are about to discover how awkward and sexy coming out can be.

Colorado, 1992. Tegan entered her freshman year of college with an open mind. As she tries to cope with a long-distance relationship, Tegan realizes it may not be the miles pulling her apart from her boyfriend. It may be her confusing feelings for her new roommate, Gemma. But when an innocent back rub turns into her first girl-on-girl make-out session, she isn’t sure if she’s ready for the world to know she’s attracted to women.

Gemma knows who she is, but she doesn’t expect Tegan to shout from the rooftops about their new relationship status. With the prying eyes of friends and jealous rivals, however, secrets may not stay hidden for long.

The series deals with homophobia/biphobia and has a bisexual main character.

Happy reading!

Miranda, Em, & TB

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