Irish Marriage Referendum Day |

On May 22, 2015, Ireland voted by referendum to legalize gay marriage becoming the first country to approve same-sex marriage via the ballet box.

To celebrate this historic vote for equality, we’re featuring books that are set in Ireland.

Below the books, TB shares how moving to Ireland spurred her to start I Heart SapphFic. She’s also included some photos she took at the Dublin Pride Parade in 2017.

Now for the books!

A Country of Eternal Light

by Darby Harn

Available in Kindle Unlimited

A rogue black hole tears apart the solar system. Mairead’s life is already in pieces.

The Earth has less than a year to survive. Asteroids rain hell; earthquakes rattle cities; manic tides swamp coasts. Mairead intends to give herself to the erratic waves that erode her remote Irish island, the same that claimed her child. When Gavin, an American, arrives to scatter his father’s ashes, she becomes torn between wanting for life and death.

Despite the tides, fuel shortages, and closing borders that threaten to trap him on the island, Gavin can’t seem to scatter the ashes. He doesn’t know how to let go any more than Mairead does and they find a strange comfort in their confusion. Their affair draws Mairead back to the world of the living, but the longer Gavin stays, the more it seems there might be a future for them. There is no future. Life closes down around them. The world they know shreds. Life drains into an inescapable abyss. And yet Mairead fights, both the gravity of her grief and the restless, dissonant desire to find some kind of peace no matter how brief.

A Country of Eternal Light is set in Ireland featuring Irish characters including Aoife, who is a lesbian.

An Outsider Inside

by R J Samuel

Available in Kindle Unlimited

For Irish-Indian lesbian activist, JAYA DILLON, an outsider who craves belonging over all else, survival depends on hiding the truth of who she is and who she loves – from herself.

In the heated run-up to Ireland’s referendum on same-sex marriage, she finds herself trapped between the “Yes” and “No” sides. And Jaya’s got a boulder on her shoulder about bisexual women and being brown in Ireland.

While clearing out an Indian couple’s rental house in Galway, she discovers a manuscript, written by the wife, Lana, who disappeared in worrying circumstances. When Jaya travels to France, she comes closer to the characters in Lana’s unfinished novel than she ever imagined possible. And she is shoved back into contact with her ex- fiancée, Chloe, who is planning her own wedding. To a man.

Jaya is drawn into a fictional world that may be truer than reality. As she fights to uncover the truth, everything she thought she knew about her politics and her place in the world turns on its head as she falls for the elusive Lana, is attracted to the charming, gay French-Algerian Ishmael and his beautiful sister Isabella, and confronts her unresolved feelings and dread over the choices Chloe is making.

Can she find Lana and the truth in time to save Chloe … without losing herself?

An Outsider Inside takes place in Ireland – and France – and is set at the time of the Irish Marriage Equality vote.

A Place Somewhere

by R J Samuel

Available in Kindle Unlimited

How far would you go? Would you lie to protect the innocent?

ALEX HART risked everything to be with her online girlfriend of two years and moved from Ireland to America. But the unthinkable happened and she is emotionally and financially ruined. Devastated, she turns her anger and betrayal into a mission to root out those who deceive the innocent online.

When a mother pleads for Alex to protect her daughter from an online predator in Ireland, Alex must become what she hates.

How far will she go before losing herself in her own web of deception?

RJ Samuel is an Irish-Indian author and all of RJ’s books take place at least partly in Ireland.

A Bittersweet Garden

by Caren J. Werlinger

Nora McNeill has always dreamed of exploring her Irish roots. When she finally gets the opportunity to spend a summer in the village where her grandparents grew up, the experience promises to live up to her very high expectations. Except for the ghost that is haunting her rented cottage and is soon invading her dreams.

Briana Devlin has arranged her life the way she likes it: a good dog, good mates, and work with horses. There’s no room in her life for a relationship. Especially with an annoyingly clumsy—and attractive—American who is only going to be around for a few months.

The weeks fly by, and Nora’s ghost becomes more demanding, seeking her help in solving the mystery surrounding her death. Briana watches as Nora becomes more wrapped up in the past, seeming to fade away before her eyes.

Past and present are on a collision course, leaving Nora and Briana caught in a ghostly intrigue that could cost them not only their chance of a future together, but their very lives.

A Bittersweet Garden is set in Ireland.

Miserere

by Caren J. Werlinger

1968 – a year of upheaval for the nation and for the Mitchell family. When her father goes MIA in Vietnam, ten-year-old Connemara and her family move to West Virginia and into her mother’s ancestral home – a neglected house whose walls hold old secrets of forbidden love and knowledge of things best forgotten.

For reasons she does not yet understand, Conn is chosen as the one who must unravel the mystery surrounding her ancestor, Caitríona Ní Faolain, who disappeared soon after the Civil War – a mystery that has condemned her family to a curse for over a hundred years.

Set during two of the most turbulent periods of American history, this story takes the reader on an epic journey through time as Conn delves deeper and deeper into her family’s past in order to end the curse before it is passed on to a new generation. Along the way, she teaches the adults around her something of the enduring power of love and hatred – and the terrible price of redemption.

Miserere begins in Ireland.

Solace

by Cailee Francis

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Lindsay:
Two years after my divorce I’m ready to push through the pain. Either I pick up the reins of my life now, or let go forever.

I didn’t expect to cross paths with Rae—in a chat room of all places. She was my first love, who I met in college. Ten years ago, I walked away from us at a time when she needed me. Unfortunately, now I know how that feels.

My first instinct is to run—it would be too easy to fall in love again. Too easy for my heart to break. But now that she’s back in my life, I’m truly grateful for her friendship, even though she’s far away.

Rae:
Real love has evaded me since Lindsay, my first love and the girl I left behind. It’s been a string of friends with benefits—I give my body but never my heart.

But my second chance has come, and the girl I loved is now a woman with a broken heart. She’s a shadow, and everything in me yearns to coax her back to life.

That’s why I’m inviting her to stay with me in Ireland. I think she could use a break away to let the past go and find some healing. I suspect the demons of her past won’t let her go so easily, but I’ll do what I can to help her find happiness again.

Solace is set in Ireland.

Beloved

by Cailee Francis

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Lauren:
Aisling and I were engaged to be married. I loved her, and I couldn’t imagine life without her by my side. But everything changed when I received a letter out of the blue telling me she was cheating on me.

I’d never had reason to doubt her, but it placed fears in my heart. Unfortunately, that was what the letter’s sender wanted.

It seemed the start of a story I’d heard too many times before, and I took some time away to consider our future together. By the time I returned a few days later, it was too late.

Aisling:
Years have passed since I ended my relationship with Lauren, but now I’ve found out who sent the letter that destroyed our relationship. I find myself questioning whether I should contact her again. Is it too late to give her another chance?

Her social media accounts say she’s single, but I don’t know if there’s someone else in her life now or how she feels about me.

Is it too late to re-discover what might’ve been?

Beloved is set in Ireland.

I Heart SapphFic ties to Ireland

TB was lucky enough to have lived in Ireland for eighteen months. And, here’s a fun fact about the history of I Heart SapphFic. When TB moved there with her partner, TB wasn’t able to publish any books because she wasn’t given a work permit. TB had more time on her hands and that’s when she started I Heart SapphFic. If TB hadn’t moved to Dublin, it’s quite possible IHS wouldn’t have entered her mind.

Here are some photos she took during the 2017 Pride Parade in Dublin.