In this week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category, we celebrate sapphic books with a “competence is sexy” theme—an ode to the allure of brilliant women who excel in their careers and are especially competent in their job.
Did you know there’s even a term for this? It’s called “competence porn”—coined from the pleasure we get from watching extremely capable characters do their job or solve a problem with their impressive expertise, knowledge, and smarts.
15 sapphic books featuring a “competence is sexy” theme
Below, you’ll find 15 recommended sapphic books with a main character who proves that competence is sexy.
Bachelorette Number Twelve by Jae
A kind ER nurse accidentally wins a date with a prickly doctor at a singles auction
Ellie Fisher loves most things about being a nurse in the emergency department…just not working with Regina Novak, an icy attending physician who acts as if she’s God’s gift to medicine.
The dislike is completely mutual. Regina thinks Ellie is a starry-eyed romantic with a sentimental attitude that has no place at work.
When Regina gets talked into volunteering at a singles auction, Ellie accidentally bids on her—and ends up winning. Oops!
Since the money raised is for a good cause, they reluctantly decide to go through with the dates.
Thanks to a baking class that turns into a competition and a hot-as-hell road trip snack incident, the ice between them starts to thaw. Is it possible the ER isn’t the most unromantic place on earth after all?
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Vengeance Planning for Amateurs by Lee Winter
Muffin maker Olivia Roberts has had it with her awful exes taking advantage of her good nature. The theft of her nana’s beloved stuffed penguin is the absolute last straw.
She puts up an ad at her local crime bookstore for a henchperson to help her enact a little mild revenge. To her astonishment, Margaret Blackwood, the mysterious, icy, and annoyingly opinionated bookstore owner, applies.
For two clever, capable women, they turn out to be woeful at vengeance. But much to their dismay, they discover they’re pretty good at falling in love!
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Like They Do in the Movies by Nan Campbell
The Dream: rich and famous screenwriter of hilarious sapphic rom coms.
The Reality: pushing out trashy celebrity gossip for cash.
The Grand Plan: advance career by engineering a celebrity takedown.
Fran Underhill’s adoration for the entertainment industry is in flames, transformed into a loathing of celebrity culture and all those who benefit from it. When a personal assistant gig for one of Hollywood’s most popular actresses falls into her lap, Fran is determined to use the experience to her advantage with a series of tell-all articles. Just enough clickbait to get her next screenplay sold. Now if only she can ignore that ferocious and inconvenient attraction to her new employer.
Chelsea Cartwright—actress, mother, and ex-wife to Hollywood royalty—is struggling. A competent new assistant will do much to ease her burdens, but who could predict the intense and long-buried feelings Fran would awaken. And what will the fallout be when she finds out Fran is a member of the gossip media—with Chelsea’s public destruction in her sights.
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Something’s Different by Quinn Ivins
Unemployed academic Caitlyn Taylor comes home to family drama. Her carefree twin Chloe plans to ditch her job to visit a guy she met online. Caitlyn steps in to impersonate Chloe so she won’t get fired for skipping town. Unfortunately, this means answering phones for an icy, dismissive boss.
Busy college president Ruth Holloway never paid much attention to her mediocre assistant. Suddenly, “Chloe” demonstrates insight into faculty politics and a baffling talent for analytics. And since when has she been so attractive?
Caitlyn dreams of getting closer to her sister’s boss but how can she? Everything they’ve shared has been based on a lie.
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A Calculated Risk by Cari Hunter
Detective Jo Shaw has it all worked out. She’s good at her job, she has loads of mates, and she likes being single. She doesn’t need complications, but an emergency call to the stabbing of a young woman brings plenty of those. Jo has to risk her career to save the woman’s life, and a bad night gets worse when the trauma surgeon turns out to be Isla Munro, Jo’s only real love, who walked out on her fifteen years ago and never came back.
With the victim’s children missing and the husband the prime suspect, Jo’s investigation is stonewalled by a community living in fear. As one dead end leads to another, she and Isla are forced to put their differences aside and work together. But the case is far more dangerous than Jo realizes, and her determination to sort the truth from the lies may put her own life on the line.
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Ensnared in Her Symphony by Jolie Dvorak
Maestro Virve Vintinen is at the very top of her game. She’s the principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – the classical music world is hers to rule and she does so in style. She has a reputation, sure. She’s been known to make entire brass sections cry with one raised brow. She’s reduced the harshest music critics to tears of rapture. She is widely regarded as one of the finest musicians of the age. And she likes to be in control – on the podium and in the bedroom.
Sabina Harper is the acting concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra but her career until now hasn’t been stellar. Previous rivalries and jealousies have made her wary of the limelight, and with a sick niece to help care for, she doesn’t find herself burning with ambition.
When a freak accident leaves the London Symphony Orchestra without a conductor just days before their European tour, Virve steps in to assist. Sitting in the first chair looking up at her is the delectable Sabina Harper. Ms Harper is hot, talented and she plays music that fuels Virve’s soul.
Which is odd, because Virve thought she’d thrown her soul – and her heart – away long ago.
As the tour begins, Sabina Harper proves herself to be eager for exactly the kind of pleasures Virve likes and they make an arrangement to enjoy each other on the tour. But Sabi’s music, her luscious body and her searching brown eyes threaten to crumple Virve’s steely resolve.
Maestro Virve Vintinen might control the music, but who controls her heart?
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Radiant by Judy Sapphire
Blake Harrison’s star is rising. Preparing for her new museum installation, she’s trying to navigate her work, her newfound fame, and her reputation for volatility. She’s also trying to abide by her “monastic before a show” rule, and has no idea what to do about the stunning lawyer who insults her and entrances her in equal measure.
Jenny O’Toole is in a professional and romantic rut. Her career as a corporate lawyer is stifling, she’s closeted at work, and her current relationship is with Netflix and wine. She’s not looking for a new girlfriend, and if she was, she certainly wouldn’t chase an irrational, pretentious conceptual artist like Blake Harrison.
It’s dislike at first sight—but when the artist and lawyer keep running into each other, the loathing turns to lust. As they weather Boston’s frigid winter, Blake and Jenny navigate their deepening feelings, and hope that their budding relationship can weather everything coming between them.
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Over a Barrel by Layla Reyne
Annaliese Rosin is fifty-six and starting over. New city, new job, new scene she’d like to explore with the stunning redhead from her flight home. She just needs to finish one last year-end deal. Should be easy, except her sexy seatmate ends up being the attorney across the table.
Carrington Clarke started over once already. At forty-three, she can’t afford to risk her job, her friends, or her heart, not even for the bossy older woman who understands exactly what she needs in the bedroom—to be watched by others. At least not until their deal closes.
While working side by side, the two women share meals and fears, hopes and dreams, and a chaotic, chef-filled Hanukkah that redefines family. The simmering attraction between them builds as they grow closer, until a last-minute change threatens their deal—and the trust they need to launch their romance outside the boardroom.
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Cutlass Cadaver: The Morelville Mysteries – Book 13 by Anne Hagan
Called to investigate a body found in her brother-in-law’s long lost classic car, Mel digs in to ID the victim and find his killer. Then a family spring break trip turns deadly when Mel’s nephew is accused of murdering a young woman at a haunted house convention.
Using her seasoned investigative skills, Mel uncovers scandalous secrets and puts herself at risk to protect her family and close both cases. But the job is taking an increasing toll, making Mel question how much longer she can continue as sheriff.
For now, justice won’t wait – and Mel won’t rest until the truth is revealed. But the challenges are mounting, forcing Mel to ask herself what matters most – her career or her family?
With two shocking murder mysteries to untangle, only Mel can uncover the cold-blooded killers and bring closure to the victims’ families. But her own family may need her even more in this gripping new tale of secrets, lies, and murder.
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Velvet in Venice by Karin Kallmaker
Artie Bryson came to Venice to finish her PhD. Five years later the PhD still isn’t done, but life is okay. Leading guided tours of the magnificent city pays the bills. The days are all the same — until she seeks respite from the summer swelter in the Casino di Venezia cabaret.
Nikki Velvet has finally found her musical niche singing Postcards from America in a solo tour across Europe. Her bluesy, jazzy, sultry voice brings Artie back the next night. And the next…
The two Americans find they have a lot in common, but Nicki’s gig in Venice ends in two short weeks. Not long enough for anything more than a bit of fun, right? One very old coin knows otherwise.
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Ignis by KJ
Felicity Davis, principal of Rawson Girls Grammar School, is a passionate educator, an inspirational leader, some say even an ice queen, although she’s not sure about that last one. But one thing Felicity knows is that she is perfectly happy with her life. That is until the trauma, the darkness of her past, comes crashing into her present, revealing a deeply buried secret, and placing Felicity and those she loves in incredible danger. Inspector Tal Diamandis takes on the case, attempting to extinguish the flames of Felicity’s past before they consume her. Matters become complicated as Felicity and Tal realise their mutual spark of attraction but when they finally connect the shocking links, the explosive conclusion will leave everyone reeling.
Can Felicity play with fire or will the fire become an inferno?
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Corked! An Enemies-to-Lovers Short by L.M. Bennett
Meet Nola Hughes, a top-notch wine sommelier at the brand new fusion restaurant Kore-Southern Comfort, who’s all about precision and perfection. Nola’s tightly controlled world gets rocked by Langston Mensah, a tough food critic whose harsh review could ruin Nola’s career. When Nola’s perfectionist boss reads Langston’s scathing review, she tells Nola to make it right–or else.
Imagine the heat in the kitchen as Nola, our by-the-book sommelier, finds herself drawn to the very critic who’s complicating her life. Every moment they spend together peels back layers of Nola’s personality, pushing her to explore uncharted territories of love, trust, and, let’s not forget, her dedication to the perfect wine.
Will Nola and Langston discover that love is just as unpredictable and exhilarating as a blind wine tasting?
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46 by Lynn Ames
It’s November 3, 2020, and Emma McMasters has just been elected the 46th president of the United States. She’s facing a divided Congress and nation, allies that no longer trust America, enemies that have been emboldened, and the legacy of destruction left by the last administration. She must rebuild and reestablish trust in government, in the media, and in the electoral system, all the while carrying the mantle of first female president, and along with it, the hopes and dreams of millions of women and little girls who need her to prove that a woman can get the job done.
Palmer Estes has devoted her life and her career to the military, rising to become the highest-ranking female officer in the US Army. An enigmatic, battle-tested hero, she’s the perfect choice to brief the new president on one last, urgent, highly sensitive mission before she retires.
Two strong women, both driven to serve the country they love, neither prepared for the sparks that fly between them.
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Beyond the Blue by TJ O’Shea
Numbers rule Dr. Mei Sharpe’s life. She has no husband, one friend, two daughters, and three random meetings with the same woman within four weeks. Once is chance, twice is coincidence, but upon the third meeting, even Mei in all her empirical rigidness must admit that perhaps the universe is giving her a nudge. A nudge that lands her directly in the path of Lieutenant Morgan Kelly—an affable, charming detective for the Sheriff Department’s brand-new cold case team working down the hall from Mei’s morgue.
More golden retriever than hard-boiled detective, Morgan is determined to pull the asocial widow out of her shell. As the icy scientist warms to her cheerful new friend, an irrepressible chemistry develops, and Mei begins to realize she’s perhaps a different number on the Kinsey scale than previously considered.
As Mei and Morgan struggle with guilt and grief, drama and desires, Mei finds her scientific austerity is no match for the universe and its nudges toward the startling revelation of what her heart really wants.
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Hunting Gold by Ann Aptaker
A golden city of prosperity, energy, the exciting engine of the American Dream. Just underneath, though, is a dark city, with darker ambitions. This is the world of Cantor Gold, dapper art thief and smuggler, who has her own way of securing the rewards of the American Dream. In the conformist 1950s, when same-sex romance was illegal, Cantor decides that any Law that condemns her as a criminal just for her love of women is not a Law she owes any allegiance to. As an outlaw, she thrives earning fistfuls of cash and living life on her own terms. But someone wants to take it all away. Someone wants to rob Cantor of everything: her success in the underworld, her freedom, her life.
Predators are out to destroy Cantor: the cops who violently raid the Green Door Club, Cantor’s favorite watering hole, where the lights are low and the women are willing; and worse, an unknown predator who threatens to destroy Cantor’s life, even destroy the lives of people close to her.
Murder is one of the weapons in the hunter’s arsenal, involving Cantor in the dangerous fate of each corpse. Another is the taunting, threatening notes that turn up on the corpses or at Cantor’s door or at the door of people she visits. And then there are the phone calls and a disguised voice. Someone is invading every minute of Cantor Gold’s life.
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Leave a comment
What book will you be reading for the “competence is sexy” category? Are there other books that are a good fit for this category? Let us know in the comments!
3 Responses
God, I feel I’ll devour every single book recommended in this category.
Why must I work with so many incompetent people…. Ugh.
Gimme that competence porn… Just in time for the weekend 😝
Any book would be great!
Beyond the Blue by TJ O’Shea