This week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category features sapphic roommate romances. The main character falls in love with their roommate. It can either be a planned roommate situation or more of a temporary arrangement that arises out of an emergency.
Have you ever noticed how butch characters are portrayed in sapphic books? I’m not talking about their personalities or how they interact with other characters; I’m talking about their physical descriptions. Most of the time, especially in butch/femme romances, the butch character will be tall and athletic and have smaller breasts compared to her love interest.
If you haven’t noticed before, pay attention to the physical descriptions the next time you read a book with a butch character.
For this category of the Sapphic Book Bingo, read a sapphic book with a butch main character who is shorter than her love interest. If you struggle to find a book with a butch character who’s shorter, I’m fine with a butch character who’s the same height as her love interest, as long as she isn’t taller.
This week’s category of the Sapphic Book Bingo features co-authored sapphic books, meaning books that have been written as a collaboration of at least two writers.
It can’t be an anthology in which each author worked on their story independently or a book that uses two different pen names of the same author on the cover.
Most of the time, both authors names will be on the cover, but sometimes, the authors also create a pen name that they use for their co-authored books, so you might have to do a bit of research to find out which books have really been created by two (or more) different authors.
For this category of the Sapphic Book Bingo, you shouldn’t have any problem finding enough books to choose from. Romance novels are the most popular genre of sapphic fiction, so there are plenty of books with the word “heart” in the title. Of course, you can also read a sapphic book in another genre, as long as the title includes the word “heart.”
The word heart can be part of an open compound, e.g., Heart Trouble, or a closed compound, e.g., heartfelt. It can be single (heart) or plural (hearts).
In most sapphic romance novels (and in romance novels overall), the sex is always perfect. Even the characters’ first time together or one character’s first time with another woman is mind-blowing, which isn’t always realistic.
For this category of the Sapphic Book Bingo, read a sapphic book with a love scene in which the sex isn’t perfect. Something goes wrong—the dog jumps onto the bed, one of them falls asleep in the middle of things, or they fumble around for a bit while they learn what their partner likes.
I know that as readers, we sometimes want escapism and the perfect fantasy, but I think those little awkward moments can make a love scene even sweeter because we see the characters laugh about it together and witness them treat each other with respect and kindness.
This week’s category of the Sapphic Book Bingo features blind dates! Usually, the two main characters go on a blind date with each other, but you can also read a book in which the protagonist goes on a blind date with someone else.
The bodyguard trope has been a staple in romance novels not just since the movie The Bodyguard with Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner. It’s a popular trope in sapphic romance too.
For this category of the Sapphic Book Bingo, read a book with a main character who’s either a bodyguard (often protecting the other main character) or works in security, e.g., as a security guard or a doorwoman.
Welcome to the first Book Unicorn post of the Sapphic Book Bingo! The Book Unicorn categories of the Sapphic Book Bingo represent books with a harder-to-find theme, and the category we’re starting with is a true unicorn: ice queen characters who are younger than their love interest!
In sapphic romance, you’ll find a lot of books that combine an ice queen character with an age gap romance, but usually, it’s the ice queen who is older.
Since ice queens are in a position of power and often at the very top of the food chain in their profession, it takes them a while to get there. That means ice queens are often in their late thirties or forties or fifties. Of course, they could still fall in love with a woman who’s older, but most authors seem to prefer pairing their ice queens with younger love interests.
Welcome to the Sapphic Book Bingo 2023! I hope you had a good start into the new year and are ready for the first category of the 2023 reading challenge. We are starting with a very popular trope: sapphic age gap romances.
Check out the rules & download your Sapphic Book Bingo card!
If you haven’t done so already, check out the rules of the Sapphic Book Bingo, read the descriptions of the categories, and download your bingo card. Then come back here to take a look at my suggestions for the first square below.
Happy New Year and welcome to the Sapphic Book Bingo 2023!
Since my previous reading challenges (the Sapphic Book Bingo 2022, the Sapphic Reading Challenge in 2021, the F/F Fiction Crossword Challenge in 2020, and the Lesbian Book Bingo in 2018) were so popular with readers, I decided to host a new reading challenge in 2023. I hope it will keep you reading all year and help you find new favorite books and authors!
The Sapphic Book Bingo is a fun, year-long reading challenge for readers of sapphic fiction. It runs from January 1 to December 31, 2023.
In this post, you’ll find the rules, the bingo cards, and the categories for the Sapphic Book Bingo 2023.