This week’s Sapphic Book Bingo post celebrates fierce sapphics!
For this category, read a sapphic book in which the main character goes on an adventure, is in danger, or fights crime. You’ll usually find these elements in suspense fiction such as mysteries, thrillers, romantic suspense, or action/adventure stories.
15 sapphic books featuring fierce sapphics
Below, you’ll find 15 recommended sapphic books that feature fierce sapphics:
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.
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Light Em Up by Sami Garcia
Light Em’ Up is a crime thriller series about a bomb squad unit in Arizona and Sam Harris striving to stop a serial bomber seeking revenge.
Harris leaves a career in stripping after inadvertently causing her best friend Cassidy’s death with an explosive device and joining the Explosive Disposal Ordinance (EOD) unit. Harris grows in the bomb squad, but a childhood trauma surfaces, prompting a one-night stand with McKenzie, who ironically becomes her new partner, taking any kind of romantic relationship off the table to keep their jobs.
Harris keeps busy competing with McKenzie to maintain the title of team lead, despite the growing desire between them. To complicate things further, Harris is assigned as a mentor in an elementary after school program for abused children.
Harris manages to juggle all of her responsibilities, and manages to expose the serial bomber they have been searching for, a retired EOD officer, closing the case, or so she thought. McKenzie and Harris succumb to the attraction, deciding it’s worth risking their jobs but while basking in their passion, Harris doesn’t see the new threat emerging with vengeance in its shadow. A dangerous new serial bomber believes Haris is the cause for their pain and suffering and will stop at nothing to ensure everyone she cares about is bathed in blood. The suspense builds as the devices become more deadly, the targets more personal leading to the end where Harris faces a life-altering decision: sacrifice herself to save others.
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Lifelines by Shireen Magedin
It’s 1975 in Nawabshah, Pakistan. Sarah and Tanya have fallen in love in an ancient land. Can they withstand the fierce opposition to their forbidden love in a city of deeply held beliefs and cultural traditions? Their journey is just beginning.
The world is changing, but not fast enough for Tanya Kareem. Her promotion to police inspector sends her to Nawabshah where she will have to prove herself and take a leading role in a man’s world.
Sarah Shahzad Shah’s passion for learning and compassion for her patients make her a brilliant doctor in training. But she possesses psychic abilities that she doesn’t know how to master… yet. Those gifts will come in handy when she handles some of her more puzzling cases that lead her to Inspector Tanya Kareem.
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Next of Kin by Jae
For years, ambitious Deputy District Attorney Kade Matheson has taken case files and law books, not lovers, to bed, ignoring her personal life in favor of her career. When she finds herself with a stalker, she tries to handle the situation the way she always does: on her own.
Lieutenant Del Vasquez has admired the standoffish lawyer for a while, and she’s determined to protect her at all costs.
When Kade’s stalker situation escalates and she and Del have to hide at her mother’s, Kade is finally forced to face her attraction to women for the very first time.
Suddenly, she’s no longer sure which one is more dangerous—the threat to her life or to her heart?
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Strange Attractors by Ana K. Wrenn
Fierce and frosty high achiever Professor Sonja J. Storey is on the verge of seizing power in her department. She has exacting plans to remake her backwoods North Carolina university, just as she has painstakingly remade herself.
Sonja’s perfectly ordered life takes a dramatic turn when she meets laid-back, magnetic junior professor Crystal Byrd.
But then come threatening notes, sinister emails, and shadowy nocturnal figures, and suddenly, Sonja’s controlled world starts to tremble like a butterfly in a storm.
Is someone out to get her? Is it a specter from Sonja’s past? It’s hard not to be suspicious of everyone, even intoxicating Crystal with her temptingly warm presence.
Seeing danger everywhere, Sonja must hunt down the source of the chaos before she loses her brilliant mind, and her chance at the one thing she’s never known—love.
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A Curious Woman by Jess Lea
Bess Campbell has escaped to the windswept Australian coastal town of Port Bannir, determined to begin her life again. She is loving her fresh start, thanks to her fun job running a hip gallery, her territorial chickens, and a lot of self-help books to find her new, better self. Port Bannir local Margaret Gale runs an austere maritime museum, and rules her staff with an iron fist. She has no time for that crazy modern gallery or upbeat, earnest Bess sweeping around town on her hipster bicycle. After a heated dispute over an antique collectible dildo, there’s little hope Margaret and Bess will ever see eye to eye. But when Port Bannir is rocked by a senseless murder, both women find themselves implicated. Can they work together to expose the truth––or will the truth prove far too dangerous?
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Undercover by Barbara Winkes
KENDALL
I swore to avenge my father’s death. I have to do it not only for my peace of mind, but to make sure everyone, from my family to the Biancos, knows that I am in charge now.
It’s lonely at the top. Jess is exactly who I need by my side, and I can’t let her go, even knowing about the danger that’s coming. Even after I learn of her true identity…
JESS/ROBYN
I began this undercover mission with good intentions and an infatuation for my target, Kendall Mancini, heir to a crime empire. My mission: to convince her to give up her vendetta and work with the authorities instead. For that, I had to get close to her.
I did get close to her. I couldn’t resist.
Now there’s no way back.
If we both want to survive this, we must do the impossible: Trust each other.
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Bury Me When I’m Dead by Cheryl A. Head
Charlene “Charlie” Mack runs one of the most respected private investigation firms in Detroit—not bad for a smart and savvy Black woman struggling with her sexual orientation and a mother with early-onset Alzheimer’s.
When Charlie and her crack team of investigators head to Birmingham, Alabama in search of a missing person, what should be a routine investigation turns into a complex chase for answers. They come across a double murder, shady locals, and a southern patriarch with dark secrets dating back forty years. And when Charlie is attacked on a quiet neighborhood street, the case suddenly becomes personal and potentially deadly. It seems like everyone has a secret to hide, including Charlie.
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Retrospect by A.J. Hutchinson-Forton
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.
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Sappho’s Bar and Grill by Bonnie J. Morris
Each month for a full year, the holiday parties and theme nights at Sappho’s Bar & Grill spin lonely Hannah Stern into the past when she least expects it. Through her sexy encounters with foremothers ranging from Lilith to Sappho, through Radclyffe Hall to the All American Girls Baseball League, Hannah learns much about herself and women’s survival across time.
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Leverage: Book Two in the Halcyon Division Series by E. J. Noyes
Last month, intelligence analyst Lexie Martin found out a secret that could ruin lives. After a week on the run from her own government with her maybe-almost girlfriend, Sophia Flores, Lexie was forced to turn herself in and accept her punishment. But that punishment never came…
Aside from Lexie’s confusion about the whys of her release, things seem to be okay—she’s free, back at work, and is officially dating Sophia, which is way better than just okay. But when you embarrass the most powerful man in the country, you risk incurring his petty wrath, and when Lexie is reassigned back into a field position in a hostile country, she’s sure it’s retaliation for knowing the truth and that the president is going to leverage what Lexie did to keep her in line.
Now Lexie has a new mission. Make it home to the woman she loves.
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Hounded by E.J. Cochrane
Dog walker-turned murder investigator Matilda Smithwick is stressed out. Thankfully, her best friend Dottie has the perfect solution—a weekend getaway to a private island off the coast of Maine.
When one of the guests is found dead in the wine cellar, Dottie “volunteers” Maddie to hunt for the killer among them. No easy feat on a remote island with no internet or cell phone reception. Add in Dottie’s questionable assistance, an impending storm, a captive and unruly pool of suspects, a growing body count and Dottie’s insistence that the party must go on, and Maddie certainly has her hands full.
Can Maddie stay out of trouble long enough to catch a killer?
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Through the Storms by Rita Potter
Dark clouds are gathering for cocky storm chaser Oakley Pierce as she throws herself into a bruising Oklahoma tempest that will change the course of four lives.
Tracking her path is down-to-earth TV meteorologist Lana Monroe, who’d dearly love a commitment from her free-spirited partner, Oakley, after eight long years of absence and career sacrifice.
Buckled in with Oakley for the storm-chasing ride of a lifetime is butch, brave EMT Riley Gatlin. She can’t help but be drawn to the sweet newly divorced single mother Chloe Crawford, who seems as out of place in the group as she is sad.
As the weather closes in, the women are forced to face their worst fears and buried truths. Will two couples emerge from the damage and debris, or will they be torn apart?
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Out to Get Her by Leigh Landry
Trouble blazes when Erin’s Louisiana hometown return lands her between yet another arson accusation and a murder.
Investigating officer Samantha tackles the case with calm and control, a stark contrast to Erin’s trademark chaos. She struggles to keep Erin clear of both cases while battling the local patriarchy for the soul of her town.
Their attraction is undeniable, but Erin has no love for cops and isn’t spending a second more than necessary in a place that never wanted her. Plus, Samantha isn’t exactly public about her bisexuality yet.
The women must navigate lingering wounds, a murder investigation, and a hurricane on the horizon to find a love that can weather all storms.
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The Power of Rain by Rosalie Rayburn
Elizabeth “Digger” Doyle is a tough young lesbian reporter with a nose for political intrigue in Las Vistas, New Mexico, a town where developers call the shots and politicians turn a blind eye. Land speculator Johnny Raposa wants a road built to his luxury clifftop subdivision. Artist/activist Maria Ortiz is fighting to stop the road and save a historic Spanish chapel. Maria begs Digger, the reporter, to expose Raposa’s shady past. Digger’s investigation is complicated by her powerful attraction to Maria.
Digger follows tips from a mysterious source, learning Raposa has dark secrets, a scam that bilked millions from taxpayers. As Digger and Maria navigate a tightrope relationship, colleagues warn Digger she’s risking her career by getting involved with a story source. But the paper is in financial trouble. Can Digger get the story without losing Maria? Can she expose Raposa and stop the road before bulldozers destroy the chapel? Will her story appear before the paper closes?
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Mafia Girl, Maybe? by Kimberly A. Todd
Stephanie Sabbatini, jewel of the Sabbatini Crime Family, didn’t expect to become a Mob Boss so soon. But when her uncle goes to prison for fifty years, everything changes.
With her protected world of running the family’s legitimate businesses nearly over, can she endure a life of crime to make good on old debts owed to two powerful enemies? Will new threats to the woman she loves and her beloved grandmother’s safety compromise her morals and have her questioning if she can really do the job?
Madison Prescott, a Park Avenue society girl, never intended to fall in love with a Mafia princess. But when her job at an art gallery causes their paths to cross, circumstances change. Is true love worth risking your life for?
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Leave a comment
What sapphic book will you be reading for the “fierce sapphics” category? Are there other books that are a good fit for this category? Let us know in the comments!
4 Responses
I wonder if Olivia Waite’s Feminine Pursuits books count for this—the characters are not necessarily in physical danger, but they all have tenacity and are fighting for a cause. Thoughts?
Some great reads here! I’d also recommend ‘Requiem for Immortals’ by Lee Winter. They don’t get much more fierce than Requiem/Natalya.
Any one of the seven books in the Elite Operatives series by Kim Baldwin & Xenia Alexiou
If you’re looking for fierce, the butches of APS From Tiffany E Taylor’s whimsical dreams series are certainly in that category. Of course, there are many others out there. I just happened to personally adore the APS butches, because who wouldn’t?