This week’s Sapphic Book Bingo post features sapphic books in which the main character has a big family!
Maybe they have half a dozen siblings or a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Of course, the protagonist could also have a huge, love-filled family of choice (See our “found family” category)
15 sapphic books in which the main character has a big family
Below, you’ll find 15 sapphic books in which the main character has a big family:
Heart Trouble by Jae
An emergency physician and a waitress discover a mysterious connection in this lesbian medical romance with a twist.
Dr. Hope Finlay loves her job as an emergency room physician, especially since it allows her only brief encounters with her patients. She learned early in life not to get attached to anyone because it never lasts.
Laleh Samadi, a waitress at her aunt’s restaurant, is the exact opposite. She easily connects with people and loves her big, boisterous Persian family, despite their tendency to meddle in her life.
When Laleh needs to be rushed to the ER with heart trouble, Hope saves her life. Afterwards, strange things begin to occur: Why does Laleh suddenly know even the most obscure diseases, while Hope is fluent in Farsi?
Soon, they can no longer deny that there’s a mysterious connection between them—one that becomes stronger with each passing day.
Are they losing their minds…or their hearts?
Available:
Risking Immortality by Alyson Root
Amelia Loch has always kept her distance. As the heir to a powerful vampire clan, she lives in the shadows of the human world—safe, unseen, and untouchable. But when her thirtieth birthday looms, everything changes.
Bound by ancient vampire law, Amelia must find her fated mate before sunset… or descend into eternal madness. No turning back. No second chances. And for someone like Amelia—bookish, reclusive, and proudly unattached—the odds aren’t great.
Then she meets Erin: a sharp-tongued, captivating bartender who sparks something wild in her. She’s beautiful. Bold. Irresistibly human. And possibly Amelia’s only hope for salvation.
But bonding with a human has never been done. If Amelia risks her immortality—and her heart—can love really defy centuries of prejudice? Or will she lose everything in the process?
Available:
Nochebuena by Stephanie Shea
Camila Morales is a hopeless romantic. Not that she thinks every couple is meant to be—she is a divorce lawyer, after all. But when her happy, married-thirty-years parents announce their own separation three weeks before Christmas, Cami’s world is turned upside down, especially since she’s been trying to feel her way through her own marital slump for months.
Sutton Davies is an imposter. At least, that’s what her therapist says. Or was it that she may have imposter syndrome? Same difference. With a promotion she’s not sure she deserves, a wife who’s definitely too good for her, and a best friend who’s always been in her corner, she should be fine. Perfect, even. But maybe that’s the problem—this unattainable quest for perfection—which is why she’s decided to focus on something she can control. Proving to Cami that this bout of spotty communication and dwindling intimacy is nothing but a blip.
Every couple goes through it, right?
Will Sutton’s attempts to reconnect over the holidays reignite sparks, or is it all too little too late?
Available:
Cast Me Gently by Caren J. Werlinger
Teresa Benedetto and Ellie Ryan couldn’t be more different, at least on the surface.
Teresa still lives at home. As much as she loves her boisterous Italian family, she feels trapped by them and their plans for her life. Their love is suffocating her.
Ellie has been on her own for years, working hard to save up enough to live her dream of escaping from Pittsburgh to travel the world. Except leaving isn’t that simple when she knows her brother is out on the streets of the city somewhere, back from Vietnam, but not home.
When Teresa and Ellie meet and fall in love, their worlds clash. Ellie would love to be part of Teresa’s family, but they both know that will never happen. Sooner or later, Teresa will have to choose between the two halves of her heart—Ellie or her family.
Available:
Paisley’s Breakthrough by Amber Perez
When life hands you the unimaginable, you can either have a breakdown or a breakthrough.
Paisley, a successful psychologist, runs a thriving practice in downtown Knoxville. She’s worked hard to build a lucrative career and it shows, from her tailored designer wardrobe to her luxurious penthouse condo. But, when she encounters a patient who makes her face her hidden past, her carefully contrived lifestyle begins to unravel. She seems to have all the answers except when it comes to her own life.
Rae, a tough on the surface paramedic with a heart of gold, wants more out of life than the meaningless hookups her coworkers seem content with. Determined to put her energy into her career, running, and playing grease monkey with her collection of vintage vehicles, Rae is convinced she has all she needs to live a fulfilled life.
Thrown together in the wake of a tragedy, both women struggle with the attraction they instantly feel for the other. More than aware of the dangers associated with trauma bonding, Rae questions every interaction as Paisley questions who she is.
Will they find a way to triage the hardships they face? Or will Paisley’s inability to break through leave them both in need of counsel?
Available:
Midnight Rain by Haley Cass
What if…
What if Charlotte didn’t decide to come out in Those Who Wait? What if she and Sutton didn’t get back together? How would that one decision alter the course of their lives, forever?
Charlotte Thompson appears to have it all – by forty, her political plans are panning out exactly as she’d always hoped. Now a senator, she quietly came out a couple of years ago, and she’s on-track to fulfilling everything she’d ever dreamed of. Perhaps she is a little lonely sometimes, but as the saying goes: it’s lonely at the top.
Sutton Spencer has finally found her footing after her divorce. She’s a tenured literature professor, she loves her daughter more than anything, and she’s accepted the harsh truth of the world: maybe she simply isn’t meant to find lasting romantic love.
They’ve both put their ill-fated affair from over a decade ago behind them, until a surprise reunion results in their paths intertwining once more.
Maybe some things are meant to be in every universe…
Available:
Unwritten by Helena Harte
No-strings is fun until it unravels…
Romance doesn’t come with a rulebook, but Shay Washington lives by one anyway: keep things simple and light and never get too close. It’s worked so far, allowing her to be the rock her family and friends lean on while she enjoys no-strings sex.
Between her new career and dealing with her mom’s outrageous behaviour, Rosie Morgan has been struggling to find love. Now she’s given up her search for Princess Charming and is just looking for fun and casual.
That makes a no-rules situationship between Shay and Rosie just about perfect. But when family, emotions, and expectations collide, nothing is ever as simple as it seems.
Available:
How to Flirt with a Witch by Tiana Warner
Katie’s biggest worry starting university in Vancouver is finding her place in a new city… until she adopts a fluffy kitten that turns out to be cursed.
Her misfortune leads her to Natalie, a beautiful “veterinarian” with a secret: she’s a witch whose job is to keep dark magic under control. Turns out, Katie has a rare ability to sense curses. Thrust into a secret coven of witches and deadly magic, she’s determined to use her special ability to help Natalie do her job. Natalie, on the other hand, just wants to keep Katie safe.
But the sinister Madsen family is also hunting for dark magic, and they’ll do anything to get it. Though involving outsiders is forbidden, Natalie has no choice but to bring Katie into her coven if she wants to protect her. As they work together to keep the world safe from curses and the Madsens’ greed, the attraction between them becomes impossible to ignore…
Available:
Love Is Just Camouflage by Sabrina Blaum
Attorney Olivia Gray is used to navigating complicated dynamics in the courtroom, but nothing could have prepared her for the emotional minefield Judge Jaime Lachlan brings into her life. What begins as a fiery affair quickly morphs into a battle between expectations and hidden desires. As their professional lives tangle with their personal, Olivia finds herself torn between what she wants and what is appropriate.
For Jaime, the walls she’s built around her heart have kept her safe, but they’ve also made her a spectator in her own life. Olivia’s warmth is a disruption she never expected, pulling her into something deeper than the physical connection she initially sought. But as their worlds collide, Jaime’s fear of emotional intimacy pushes them toward an inevitable breaking point.
Available:
Ribbonwood by Ruby Landers
Lara Bennett is world-famous in Ribbonwood, population 907. She’s the woman you don’t trust your husband with: a real-life femme fatale. If there’s a scandal in town, she’s at the center of it, ruining businesses, marriages, and egos everywhere she goes, with her sharp tongue and that body that makes you look twice. Besides… didn’t she more or less kill a man?
Ollie Gabrielli left Ribbonwood right after high school, back when Lara was her arch-nemesis. The queen bee and the closeted soccer star: natural enemies. When she comes home for three months it’s to recover from burnout and spend time with her chaotic family, not to reconnect with old classmates. Only somehow, she can’t seem to take her eyes off Lara. How did she only get hotter? And is she really everything they say she is?
Sometimes, there’s a reason you should never try to go home.
Available:
My Fake Girlfriend by Reba Bale
The woman she’s had a crush on for years needs a fake girlfriend, and Elana is ready to volunteer for the job!
Toya is in a bind. Her little sister is getting married, and her mother is insisting she bring her girlfriend to the wedding. She’d told a little white lie to get her mom off her back, but now it’s backfiring. Her mom thinks she’s in a committed relationship, so Toya needs to find a pretend girlfriend, and fast.
Elana fell in love with Toya the minute she set eyes on her. Unfortunately, she somehow went right into the friend zone. Elana has been hesitant to rock the boat, especially when they have so many friends in common, but this wedding is a chance for her to finally show Toya how she feels.
Pretending to be a couple and sharing a bed at the destination wedding, things start to heat up. Suddenly things between them aren’t so friendly…
Can she convince Toya that she needs more than being a fake girlfriend? She needs forever.
Available:
You’re Still the One by Claire Highton-Stevenson
A twenty-five-year-old heartbreak. A surprising reunion. Their lives are completely different now, but what about their hearts?
Natalie Shultz is a success in business but not in love. Although she’s built an empire of female-empowering sex toy stores, she’s never been able to find a deep, passionate connection of her own since running away from the girl of her dreams twenty-five years ago. But when she unexpectedly encounters Sadie again, who’s now an elegant, sensual woman, Natalie can’t quite smother a desperate hope of rekindling their long-ago spark.
Sadie Swanson is not the girl she once was. As a high-class escort, she exercises absolute control over who enjoys her body while keeping her heart securely locked away. Yet seeing a face from the past penetrates her artfully-constructed façade. The physical and emotional pull toward Natalie is as powerful as ever, but surrendering to it means risking another devastating heartbreak…and this time, Sadie may not survive it.
Memories of their glorious, youthful romance intertwine with the complexities of the present day as Natalie and Sadie rediscover the fire that has always burned between them. Will they embrace the warmth or quench the flames forever?
Available:
Warm Pearls and Paper Cranes by E.V. Bancroft
Maud Heaston has been in love with Beatrice Williams since they first met in 1939. They’ve been through hell and back; family, careers, and secrets have threatened to tear them apart, but their love has endured it all. Until now. Old age and illness have forced them into separate nursing homes and the family Maud trusted to take care of them are only out for themselves.
Hannah Jones is trying to put her past behind her and find her place in the world. Midway through a doctorate and living with Suki, the woman she’d like to be more than just friends with, the last thing she needs is Gammy, her interfering great aunt, back in her life. Though Gammy took Hannah in when her mother died, her overbearing nature and constant criticisms forced them apart. Now they barely speak.
Maud needs Hannah’s help to be reunited with the love of her life. Hannah needs Suki to take a chance on love. Can a reconciliation between Maud and Hannah free them both to be with the women they love or will the past destroy their future?
Available:
Play Pretend by Emily Alter
Kara
When I put an ocean between my ex and me, I made myself a promise. No getting closer to Dommes again. Ever. There was no way I’d put myself back in the same situation.
So of course my new boss is the epitome of one, and of course I find that out when I was having a panic attack in a BDSM club. I should’ve run away then, but… I couldn’t, not when I’d just gotten a glimpse of what my life could be.
Mónica
I liked to keep my life as headache-free as possible. Which wasn’t always easy when working in a male-dominated field with my four brothers. Still, dealing with my brothers was nothing in comparison to having to talk my new secretary through a panic attack in the BDSM club I helped fund.
I tried to reason, to negotiate how to keep my two worlds separate—the way I liked them. The last thing I’d ever do was put her in a situation where she was even more vulnerable but… I was going to become the cliché boss who fell for her secretary.
Available:
Don’t Circle Or by Kellan McKnight
In a love story interrupted by tragedy, Morgan Trimble and Drew Hunter-Davidson once shared a passionate connection. But fifteen years ago, a life-altering event shattered their hopes for what-could-have-been and sent shockwaves through the Trimble family.
Morgan, once destined for a bright future, now finds herself trapped in a cycle of guilt and self-destruction, haunted by the past. Drew, too, struggles to find meaning in a loveless marriage, merely existing for the sake of her son and the family surrounding her.
When Morgan bravely decides she’s ready to come home, everything hangs in the balance. Will the old flames still burn between them after all this time? Can Drew summon the courage to break free from her loveless marriage and pursue her true desires? And will Morgan find the strength to forgive herself?
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What book will you be reading for the “sapphic books featuring hiking or camping” category? Let us know in the comments!
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3 Responses
This is a great list. Can anyone add to this?
I’m looking forward to the Advent Calendar! Thank you, Jae.
Radclyffe’s Rivers Community series first two books: Against Doctor’s Orders and Prescription for Love. I’m especially fond of Prescription.
I completely forgot about this series! Thanks for the reminder. I’ve also re-read Jae’s Next of Kin and have been reminded that Dawn has a big extended family.