The Best Sapphic Romance Books: 14 Love Stories Between Women

Elle is a free-spirited astrologer; Darcy is a buttoned-up actuary who doesn't believe in any of it. After a disastrous blind date set up by Darcy's brother, they agree to fake a relationship through the holidays. A warm, funny Seattle-set rom-com and a great first sapphic romance.

Photographer Delilah Green goes back to Bright Falls, the town she couldn't wait to leave, to shoot her stepsister's wedding — and falls for Claire, one of the bride's best friends. The first Bright Falls novel balances sharp banter with family wounds.

August moves to New York and keeps running into Jane on the Q train — until she realises Jane is literally stuck there, displaced in time from the 1970s. Equal parts romance, found family and love letter to queer history.

A red-carpet photo sparks rumours that showrunner Jo and her assistant Emma are dating. They aren't — yet. A patient slow burn about power, privacy and what happens when the gossip starts to feel true.

College senior Cassie has a one-night stand with Erin during family weekend — then discovers Erin is the mother of one of her friends. Funny, awkward and tender.

Rookie Phoebe joins a professional women's soccer team alongside veteran star Grace — and the rivalry-to-romance chemistry is immediate. A lively locker-room romance.

Grace Porter has just finished her astronomy PhD and wakes up in Las Vegas married to a woman she doesn't know. What follows is a gentle story about burnout, expectations and choosing your own path.

San Francisco, 1954: Lily Hu is drawn to Kath and to the Telegraph Club, a lesbian bar, at a time when being found out could cost her family everything. A tender coming-of-age romance that won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.

A young department-store clerk, Therese, falls for Carol, an older woman in the middle of a divorce. First published in 1952 under a pseudonym, it was unusual for giving its lovers a hopeful ending, and it inspired the 2015 film Carol.

In late-1950s Reno, professor Evelyn waits out her divorce and meets Ann, a younger casino worker. A landmark novel of lesbian fiction and the basis of the film Desert Hearts.

Pickpocket Sue Trinder is placed as a maid to the heiress Maud Lilly as part of a con — and nothing goes to plan. A gripping, twist-filled historical novel with a love story at its centre.

Oyster girl Nan Astley falls for Kitty Butler, a male impersonator in the music halls of 1890s England, and follows her to London. A vivid, sensual coming-of-age story.

A standalone epic fantasy of queens, mages and dragons, with a slow-building romance between Queen Sabran and Ead, a secret mage sent to protect her.

Swordswoman Gideon and necromancer Harrowhark are bitter rivals sent to a decaying palace to compete for immortality. Funny, gothic and strange — the first book in the Locked Tomb series.