This Week’s Results: Best Sapphic Girl Next Door Romance |

We ask readers on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Instagram to nominate books in a different trope each week, and we create the best of the best poll. Below you’ll find the winners that have been crowned so far.

Best Sapphic Girl Next Door

Girl Next Door

by Erik Schubach

When it comes to love. Brandye can’t see what is right in front of her. A blind artist, Robin, shows her that all relationships are not doomed to end badly, and soulmates are destined to find each other.

Atramentum

by MJ Duncan

Joss Perrault left Sky, Colorado after high school with no intention of ever returning, but all that changes when she inherits Atramentum. Burned out on public accounting after too many sixteen-hour days, the allure of operating a small, independent bookstore is too tempting to resist, and Joss decides to walk away from the career she spent the last decade building to move back to the resort town high in the Rockies. Cupid strikes as she’s moving into her new place outside Sky and, contrary to popular belief, Cupid has four legs and a tail, hits like a linebacker, and answers to the name George. Before Joss can recover from being tackled by the Great Dane, she finds herself face to face with George’s mom, Maeve Dylan. Joss is immediately smitten with her beautiful neighbor, but their conversations walk the line between friendliness and flirtation like it’s a tightrope, and Joss is reluctant to do anything that will risk their budding friendship. Thankfully for her, however, George doesn’t give up so easily.

Poppy Jenkins

by Clare Ashton

Two old friends, one hot summer, a whole load of confusion.

Poppy Jenkins makes everyone smile. She’s the heart of Wells, a beautiful village in mid-Wales, leaving light and laughter in her wake. She has a doting family, an errant dog and a little sister with a nose for mischief. But she’s the only gay in the village and it’s a long time since she kissed a girl: the chance of romance in sleepy Wells is rarer than a barking sheep.

If she doesn’t think too hard, life is cosy, until a smart sports car barrels into town with the last woman Poppy wants to see behind the wheel. Beautiful Rosalyn Thorn was once Poppy’s high school BFF even though she was trouble. Then one day she abandoned Wells and Poppy without explanation. Now the highflier is back and bound to cause fresh havoc in the village and with Poppy’s heart; folk are not happy.

Wells needs to wake up to the 21st century and Rosalyn can help, but old prejudices die hard. If they can be friends it could be the chance to make everyone’s happy ever after. Couldn’t it?

Keep scrolling for previous category winners!

Best Sapphic Suspense

The Red Files

by Lee Winter

Rival reporters team up for the story of their careers in this lesbian romantic suspense filled with humor, twists, and one fierce ice queen.

Ambitious Daily Sentinel journalist Lauren King is chafing on LA’s vapid social circuit, reporting on glam, A-list parties while sparring with her rival—the formidable, icy Catherine Ayers.

Ayers is an ex-Washington DC political correspondent who suffered a humiliating fall from grace, and her acerbic tongue keeps everyone at bay. Everyone, that is, except knockabout Iowa girl King, who is undaunted, unimpressed and gives as good as she gets.

One night a curious story unfolds before their eyes: One business launch, 34 prostitutes and a pallet of missing pink champagne.

What on earth does it mean? King and Ayers join forces but they might find a lot more than just a passion for news on the dusty road to Nevada.

Unbreakable

by Cari Hunter

Dr. Grace Kendal never stands a chance. The injured woman comes out of nowhere, bleeding heavily and holding a gun. Compelled to help her, Grace is dragged into Elin Breckenridge’s nightmare. Their fight to survive will take them across the country and to the limits of their endurance. But who is Elin running from? As Grace struggles for answers, one thing becomes clear—Elin is somehow connected to a dead man, and Grace could be next.

For Detective Sergeant Safia Faris, the case should have been easy: one dead body, one suspect. But the deeper she digs, the more obvious it becomes that murder was only the beginning. The investigation sets her on a collision course with Grace and Elin, and she’s forced to reevaluate everything she knows. Because nothing is quite as it seems, and Grace’s and Elin’s lives aren’t the only ones on the line.

Retrospect: The Hidden Life of Mac Scott

by A.J. Hutchinson-Forton

Available in Kindle Unlimited

A lesbian thriller fiction. Dark, bold, and sexy.

McKenna Scott is missing. She’s presumed dead. Perished. Out of her misery… Suddenly, she’s not. She’s alive! Existing. Viable, just about…

Two years after she vanished, Mac Scott stumbles into a London hospital. Scars encrust her body. She cannot tolerate the slightest physical touch despite her body aching for human connection. She has no memory of what happened to her. As Mac tries to ease herself into a life that now feels alien, she is consumed with grief and anger at losing the self-assured, fun-loving woman she once was. So she looks for help.

Enticing therapist, Alisha Cole, helps her retrieve shards of horrific memories and it soon becomes clear… Mac may be home, but she is far from free.

Using her scars and memory fragments like a road map, she investigates her disappearance and journeys through the perilous twists and turns of her own mystery. Unexpected love and an insatiable need to be freed from the evil which torments her, drives Mac to rediscover herself and find newfound fortitude.

Where has she been? Why was she captured? She’s about to find out. And then she will make them pay. Escape is just the beginning; Mac is going to raise hell.

Best Sapphic Fantasy Romance

Princess of Dorsa

by Eliza Andrews

Available in Kindle Unlimited

The fate of an empire lies in the hands of one untested princess.

Rebellious Princess Natasia has always known that her fate is to marry a man her father can shape into his heir. But everything changes after a would-be assassin nearly takes Tasia’s life. Someone with means and connections is obviously trying to destabilize the Empire, but who? No noble family is above suspicion, so the Emperor takes the extraordinary step of naming his daughter his true heir.

Tasia suddenly finds herself saddled with learning to rule an entire Empire. But there are enemies on every side, threatening to disrupt the Empire’s fragile peace — there’s the long-standing and deeply unpopular war in the East, disagreements amongst her father’s closest advisors, angry lords threatening their defiance, and rumors of a faraway kingdom trying to sow discord.

Can Tasia rise to the occasion? Will she be the leader her father believes her to be? Or is the Empire doomed to fall?

Aurora’s Angel

by Emily Noon

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Joined in a battle for survival, a broken-winged angel and a shapeshifter huntress with a bloody past form a bond that may change their world. Alone since her father’s murder, Aurora has spent years hunting his killers. Battle-weary she’s ready to start over where no one knows who or what she is – she just has one last mission. Everything is going to plan until she discovers the beautiful winged girl caged underground. Her decision to rescue Evie and to help her get home safely, despite avians being infamous for selling out shifters like Aurora to cutters and black-market flesh dealers, will put her on a perilous path.

As the women travel together their attraction grows but Aurora is guarding her lonely heart almost as much as her dangerous secrets and Evie is struggling to accept how important Aurora has become to her.

With their enemies conspiring to kill them, they may be each other’s only hope. Aurora is powerful but she’s also emotionally scarred. It will be up to Evie to save her from herself and to fight for them, or innocent people will die along with the guilty ones and Aurora will disappear from Evie’s life forever.

Of Wulf and Wynd

by Lexa Luthor

Princess Tharon and Princess Roswynd were best of friends as pups; now they are enemies and forced to marry each other.

The Kingdom of White Sommer and the Kingdom of Wyndfeld had been united and strong. Princess Tharon of White Sommer grew up with her best friend Princess Roswynd of Wyndfeld, both having vowed to always be together. But it all came crashing down when Tharon’s mother was murdered by Roswynd’s family. The two kingdoms plunged into a dark, bloody war of revenge and hatred. After ten long years at war, the kingdoms agree to a ceasefire, but under the condition of a forced marriage between the two princesses.

Tharon becomes the Prince and Lord Commander of the White Sommer Army and a knight known as the Black Wulf. She has dedicated her life to conquering Wyndfeld and avenging her mother’s murder. Even better, she finally gets to claim Roswynd as her Omega. Now nothing can stop her from having it all.

Roswynd grew up broken and enraged over Tharon’s betrayal of their friendship pact. Now forced to marry Tharon, she is at a loss with her new wife, finding no remnants of her best friend under Tharon’s cold exterior. She gives her wedding vows to Tharon, but she knows their vows are based on lies. She will protect her kingdom from Tharon.

As Tharon and Roswynd play the game, they both discover they must choose between honoring their wedding vows or their vows to their kingdom.

Best Sapphic Fake Relationship

For the first time, we had a tie for third place!

Backwards to Oregon

by Jae

A single mother and a woman living as a man find love on the Oregon Trail in this best-selling lesbian historical romance.

“Luke” Hamilton has always been sure that she’d never marry. She accepted that she would spend her life alone when she chose to live her life disguised as a man.

After working in a brothel for three years, Nora Macauley has lost all illusions about love. She no longer hopes for a man who will sweep her off her feet and take her away to begin a new, respectable life.

But now they find themselves married and on the way to Oregon in a covered wagon, with two thousand miles ahead of them.

Who’d Have Thought

by G Benson

Top neurosurgeon Samantha Thomson needs to get married fast and is tightlipped as to why. And with over $200,000 on offer to tie the knot, no questions asked, cash-strapped ER nurse Hayden Pérez isn’t about to demand answers.

The deal is only for a year of marriage, but Hayden’s going into it knowing it will be a nightmare. Sam is complicated, rude, kind of cold, and someone Hayden barely tolerates at work, let alone wants to marry. The hardest part is that Hayden has to convince everyone around them that they’re madly in love and that racing down the aisle together is all they’ve ever wanted. What could possibly go wrong?

The Girlfriend Arrangement

by Anna Stone & Hildred Billings

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Fake girlfriends. Real chemistry.

Parker Black has put her bad girl days behind her. Once the rebellious, womanizing middle child of the wealthiest family in Seattle, she’s now the founder and CEO of a luxury lingerie label. But when an incident from her past resurfaces, everything she’s built threatens to come crashing down.

For up-and-coming public relations specialist Julia Conner, her job is her life. A former foster kid, she’s spent years climbing the ladder. So when Parker contacts her to help her come back from a scandal, Julia is determined to prove she can handle a big-name client like Parker Black.

But Julia isn’t prepared for the way the blonde-haired billionaire makes her weak at the knees. And she definitely isn’t prepared when Parker announces to the world that Julia is her girlfriend.

Swept into a fake romance with a woman who’s determined to tempt her into her bed, Julia is unable to resist Parker and her intoxicating power games. But is their relationship really just pretend? And with both their reputations on the line, will Parker and Julia be willing to put their hearts on the line too?

Breaking Character

by Lee Winter

Life has become a farcical mess for icy British A-lister Elizabeth Thornton. America’s most-hated villain stars in a top-rated TV medical drama that she hates. Now, she’s been romantically linked to her perky, new co-star, Summer, due to the young woman’s clumsiness. As a closeted actress, that’s the last thing Elizabeth needs. If she could just get her dream movie role, life would be so much better. The only problem is that the eccentric French film-maker offering it insists on meeting her “girlfriend”, Summer, first.

Summer Hayes is devastated when her co-star shuns her for accidentally sparking rumors they’re lovers. Now the so-called British Bitch has the audacity to ask Summer to pretend to be her girlfriend to get her a role? Elizabeth doesn’t even like Summer! Oh, how she’d love to tell her no. And Summer definitely would if it wasn’t for the fact she’s maybe a tiny bit in love with the impossible woman.

A lesbian celebrity romance about gaining love, losing masks, and trying to stick to the script.

Best Sapphic Love After 50

Touchwood

by Karin Kallmaker

Fleeing the ruins of her life and relationship, Rayann Germaine rents a room from bookstore owner Louisa Thatcher. Decades older, Louisa offers shelter and work—and eventually passion that takes them both by surprise.

Falling in love, and into bed, turns out to be the easy part. Rayann’s mother disapproves of a liaison with a woman her own contemporary. Louisa’s son blames Rayann for revelations about his mother’s past and present that he does not want to accept. Friends universally agree that it can’t last.

These doubts would be easier to withstand if Rayann wasn’t already worried about sustaining the interest of a fascinating woman with a lifetime of experiences. Louisa isn’t sure she has any right to lay claim to the future of a much younger woman. Their only common ground seems to be the searing attraction that they simply can’t deny.

A Breathless Place

by Harper Bliss

When all hope is lost, can music be the ultimate lifeline?

Isabel ‘Izzy’ Adler used to dominate the world’s stages with her vocal acrobatics. But since she lost her voice ten years ago, Izzy’s been to hell—and hasn’t found her way back.

When journalist Leila Zadeh is brought in to finish her biography, Izzy’s dark plans for her life are challenged by the brilliant and gorgeous new woman in her life.

Will the instant attraction between them be enough to stop Izzy from playing out her final song?

A Light on Altered Land

by Becky Bohan

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Ellie Belmont, a retired college teacher, wants to leave the house she shared with her wife, who died three years ago. Kathryn Kepler, a retired psychotherapist, finds life as a country club divorcée lonely. They meet by chance at a coffee shop and bond over downsizing. Sparks of attraction ignite on a road trip from Minnesota to California. After a romantic few days in Yosemite, they must deal with the real world—Kathryn’s homophobic daughter, medical cannabis, and a run-in with the law. A love story about mature passion and personal integrity, A Light on Altered Land has readers cheering for this winsome couple.

Best Sapphic Magical Realism

Out on the Panhandle

by R. E. Bradshaw

Take a thirty-nine-year-old woman, born and raised on the beach, and plop her down on the Panhandle of Oklahoma in the midst of her lover’s huge family reunion. Add in a cow chip throwing contest, a horse round up, Native American legends, a crazed fundamentalist sister-in-law, a family secret, an unforgettable romance, and Decky Bradshaw is in for a wild ride. The sequel to Out on the Sound, this novel continues the tales of Decky and Charlie. From Lambda Literary Award Finalist author, R. E. Bradshaw, Out on the Panhandle will elicit tears one moment and side-splitting laughter the next, on the way to discovering that true love never ends.

Art Of Magic

by KJ

Available in Kindle Unlimited

A story where a touch of love and a slice of life creates a whole lot of magic.

Cath Monroe loves her teaching job, her friends, her family, and her colleagues. They fill her life and her heart. She knows that it’s important to share love with actions and words, but that last one? About the words? That’s a problem. Because when it comes to saying ‘I love you’ to her forever person, Cath discovers that she doesn’t really know anything about love at all.

Then, Rica Diamandis strolls into her life. Rica is all stardust and sexy, and Cath is intrigued. The sudden availability of a romantic blank canvas takes Cath’s breath away. But when her father is taken to hospital with a life-threatening disease, Cath boxes up the romance with Rica, and packs it into the back of her heart. Fortunately, the Universe has other ideas and Cath begins to realise that embracing emotional chaos is actually the art that creates the magic.

Letters to Cupid

by Miranda MacLeod

Available in Kindle Unlimited

An American celebrity chef and an Italian chocolate maker cook up a magical recipe for true love.

In a tiny village in the hills of Tuscany is a statue of Cupid with the power to grant the deepest desires of the heart to all who ask. The village is home to single mother Valentina, who runs a struggling chocolate shop. All she’s ever wanted was to fit in, determined to provide a quiet, normal life for herself and her daughter. She works hard to keep it together, asking for nothing…especially not Cupid’s help. Not when that would mean admitting to herself and everyone else that her deepest desire is to find the love of a woman.

American celebrity chef Andie should be having the time of her culinary life while on a PR blitz in Tuscany. Instead, a tabloid scandal that threatens to destroy her career has her hiding in a remote hillside village. With nothing to do but worry and wait, she spends her time avoiding shame and infamy by flirting with a local chocolate maker who’s as irresistible as the sweets she sells. She’s shocked by the discovery that her heart longs for much more than a temporary distraction, but even if she can convince the reluctant Valentina to give her a chance, how can she balance a relationship in Italy with a career in the States?

When it comes to realizing the deepest desires of their hearts, it just might take an act of divine intervention for these two women to find their future together!

Best Sapphic Slow Burn Romance

And Playing the Role of Herself

by K. E. Lane

Actress Caidence Harris is living her dreams after landing a leading role among the star-studded, veteran cast of 9th Precinct, a hot new police drama shot on location in glitzy LA. Her sometimes-costar Robyn Ward is magnetic, glamorous, and devastatingly beautiful, the quintessential A-List celebrity on the fast-track to super-stardom. When the two meet on the set of 9th Precinct, Caid is instantly infatuated but settles for friendship, positive that Robyn is both unavailable and uninterested. Soon Caid sees that all is not as it appears, but can she take a chance and risk her heart when the outcome is so uncertain?

The leading ladies and the supporting cast of this debut novel by newcomer K.E Lane will charm you, entertain you, and leave you with a smile on your face, eager for Ms. Lane’s next offering.

Those Who Wait

by Haley Cass

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Sutton Spencer’s ideas for her life were fairly simple: finish graduate school and fall in love. It would be a lot simpler if she could pinpoint exactly what she should do when she graduates in less than a year. Oh, and if she could figure out how to talk to a woman without feeling like a total mess, that would be great too.

Charlotte Thompson is very much the opposite. She’s always had clear steps outlining her path to success with no time or inclination for romance. Her burgeoning career in politics means everything to her and she’s not willing to compromise it for something as insignificant as love. Fleeting, casual, and discreet worked perfectly fine.

When they meet through a dating app, it’s immediately clear that they aren’t suited for anything more than friendship. Right?

The Truth About Eve

by Jourdyn Kelly

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Eve Sumptor is back. This time she is facing her toughest opponent yet. Herself.

After a passionate affair, Eve Sumptor and Lainey Stanton had difficult choices to make. One chose fear, the other gave in to guilt. As the consequences of those decisions begin to come to light, both women must find a new direction.

Will their paths once again come together?

Or have they missed their chance?

You met Eve and Lainey in Something About Eve. You watched them suffer in Flawed Perfection. You’ve followed Eve’s therapy sessions online. Now, see where every decision leads the two women. Were they meant to be together? Or will life keep tearing them apart?

Best Sapphic Books Featuring a POC Character

Finding Jessica Lambert

by Clare Ashton

Movie star Jessica Lambert is in danger of burning out. Returning to London for the premiere of her latest film, she’s recognised everywhere she goes. When she runs away through the streets of London, she’s taken in by the beautiful and more mature Anna. The two hide in the sanctuary of Anna’s roof-top flat, a haven away from the crowds, but why has Anna removed herself from the world?

As the two women get to know each other, stripping away the layers, both appreciate what each does for the other. This could be the start of something wonderful, more than either of them know.

Evolution

by MJ Duncan

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Life in The Royal Ballet comes with a set of unwritten rules, and no one knows them better than Nina Devereaux. Even in her current role as the Company’s Artistic Director, those expectations still loom menacingly over her life. But when she’s granted the opportunity to bring her revolutionary ballet to stage, the little voice that has always kept her playing by the rules begins to waver as she watches her love letter to the woman who has held her heart for years come to life. She knows better than most that it’s a long road from wanting something to having it, but perhaps this time she’ll finally manage to get it right.

The Woman in 3B

by Eliza Lentzski

Available in Kindle Unlimited

The challenge was supposed to be simple. Spill a drink on an airline passenger and be one square closer to winning the company’s secret bingo card game. Twenty-five different challenges, at various levels of difficulty, had to be accomplished within a month’s time. After nearly eight years of being a flight attendant, Alice Kaminski had spilled drinks on plenty of passengers, mostly on accident and during rough air. She didn’t particularly like the idea of the bingo card, but she had massive student debt; the financial incentives were enough to make her momentarily forget the questionable ethics of it all. The challenge was supposed to be simple—that is, until Alice saw her intended target—the beautiful woman seated in 3B. And after that, nothing was simple ever again.

Best Sapphic Age Gap Romance Winners

The Brutal Truth

by Lee Winter

Take one ice queen media-mogul boss, an assistant with a crush on her, throw in a truth bet, and as their secrets pour out in this slow-burn lesbian romance, neither woman will be the same again.

Australian crime reporter Maddie Grey is working the night shift, out of her depth in New York, miserable, and secretly crushing on her twice-married, media-mogul employer.

Elena Bartell is a brilliant, fierce, ice queen boss who eats failing newspapers for breakfast and believes to her core that everything would be much simpler if people told each other the whole, unvarnished truth.

As work takes them to Australia, Maddie is goaded into a brief, seemingly harmless bet with her enigmatic boss—where they can’t lie to each other. The bet backfires spectacularly as Elena realizes that the brutal truth might not be what she wanted after all.

A beautiful lesbian workplace romance about the lies we tell ourselves.

By Design

by J.A. Armstrong

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Building bridges has a very different meaning for Jameson Reid than it does for Candace Fletcher. J.D. Reid spends her days designing some of the most elegant and majestic buildings and homes in North America. U.S. Senator Candace Fletcher has spent her life working to build bridges between people. J.D. Reid is not who Candace Fletcher was expecting to arrive on her doorstep. Candace will challenge all of Jameson’s preconceptions about the women of Washington D.C. The enigmatic architect will test the resolve of the Junior Senator from New York. Two women will discover that falling in love may be out of their control, but creating a relationship in the world of politics and business is completely BY DESIGN.

Mrs Middleton

by Melissa Tereze

Available in Kindle Unlimited

Their love could heal their hearts…but destroy the relationships they both hold dear.

Emma Bradley is trembling. And not because of the climate difference between England and Africa, where she’s just ended an 18-month stint teaching sports to kids. She’s about to see Vanessa again.

Golden hair, luminous blue eyes, a smile to light up a room. The woman Emma loves. The woman she spilled her heart out to, then ran away to another continent to avoid a humiliating scene—because Vanessa is her best friend’s mum. If Emma is lucky, maybe Vanessa chalked it up to too much wine. Or better yet, forgot all about it.

Vanessa Middleton is fighting a serious case of uncertainty. Emma’s confession is crystal clear in her memory, and now that Vanessa is divorced from her cheating husband, the strongest barrier between them is gone. But there are others no less challenging.

Because if Vanessa couldn’t keep her husband’s attention, what could bright, beautiful, much younger Emma possibly see in her? Worse, if the two of them act on their attraction, their affair could jeopardise the relationship they both hold dear: Vanessa’s daughter—Emma’s closest friend.

Congratulations to the winners!

Em, Faith, TB, & Miranda

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