Jae

Sapphic Slow-burn romances

Sapphic Book Bingo

Sapphic book non-human character

Sapphic book with a non-human character (Sapphic Book Bingo #14)

For this week’s Sapphic Book Bingo square, read a sapphic book with a main character who is not human. 

It could be a book about a lesbian vampire, a bisexual werewolf, a pansexual shape-shifter, a queer alien, or any other sapphic main character who isn’t human.

Usually, you’ll find those characters in all subgenres of speculative fiction such as fantasy, science fiction, paranormal romance, urban fantasy, dystopian or post-apocalyptic fiction, etc. 

Right now, I’m hosting a big Sapphic Speculative Fiction Giveaway with 50 book prizes, plus my lesbian vampire romance Good Enough to Eat is on sale for 99 cents for a few days, so don’t forget to check the links for the book sale & the giveaway!

coming-out story

Coming-out story (Sapphic Book Bingo #13)

For this week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category, read a sapphic book in which the main character comes out as LGBTQIA+ during the course of the book.

Maybe the character has known for a while that they weren’t straight or weren’t cis but only now comes out to family, friends, and colleagues. Or it could be a book in which the main character discovers that they aren’t as straight or as cis as they had assumed, so the coming out is mostly to themselves first and foremost, perhaps followed by coming out to friends and family. 

sapphic book character over 50

Sapphic book with a main character over 50 (Book Unicorn #6)

For this week’s Book Unicorn post of the Sapphic Book Bingo, read a sapphic book in which at least one of the main characters is over 50. 

In WLW and lesbian fiction, especially in romance, most of the protagonists seem to be in their 20s and 30s. Lately, I’ve seen more books with characters in their forties, but characters who are in their fifties and beyond are still rather rare.

So for this week’s category, I’d like you to read a book with a main characters in their 50s or older. It could be an age gap romance, in which the other main character is considerably younger, or all of the protagonists could be over 50. I’ll leave that choice up to you, as long as at least one of the main characters is 50 or older.

sapphic book by a newbie author

Sapphic book by a newbie author (Sapphic Book Bingo #12)

For this week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category, I would like you to read a book by a new author to give some attention to writers who are just starting out.

For the sake of this reading challenge, I’m defining “newbie authors” as a writer who has published only one or two novel-length books.

I put together a list of 100+ new authors of sapphic books for you, and I’m constantly adding to it as I find new authors, so keep checking back.

Classic sapphic books

Classic sapphic books (Sapphic Book Bingo #11)

For this week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category, read a book that is considered a classic sapphic book—one of the trailblazing books published in the 20th century or before, at a time when most mainstream publishers wouldn’t publish LGBT+ literature and sapphic characters often didn’t get a happy ending.

Today, we are lucky to live in a time when more sapphic books are published every year than most of us can read, across all subgenres, and we owe it to these amazing authors who blazed the trail for us. 

For the sake of this reading challenge, I would considered any sapphic book that was first published before the year 2000 a “sapphic classic.”

sapphic books safer sex

Sapphic books that includes safer sex (Book Unicorn #5)

For this week’s Book Unicorn post of the Sapphic Book Bingo, read a sapphic book in which the characters practice safer sex. Maybe there’s a scene in the book in which they talk about safer sex, or we find out they’ve gotten tested for STIs (sexually transmitted infections) before sleeping together, or we see them use dental dams or condom-covered sex toys, etc. 

As I mentioned in a blog post that I wrote for the Ylva Publishing blog a few years ago, sapphic romances and erotica rarely depict safer sex practices. The characters never seem to worry about contracting sexually transmitted infections, even if they have only just met and don’t know each other’s sexual history. 

I get that it can interrupt the buildup and flow of a steamy scene, but as an author, I try to find a way to incorporate it, especially if I’m writing a story in which one of the characters had a lot of one-night stands in the past.